


Crowded Enough

by CaraLee



Series: Crowded Enough [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Barbara Gordon aka Bat-Sitter, Bat Family, Bruce Wayne aka Dadman, Cass is Scary, Crowded Batcave, Damian is a Grumpy Baby, Dick is a Hopeless Case, Gen, Jason is a bookworm, Selina Kyle aka Reluctant Part-Time Catmom, Steph is Awesome, This Is A Story That Explores Relationships, This is Gen 'Cause They are All Adorable Bat-Babies, Timmy is an Adorable Baby, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-22
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2018-03-14 13:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 20,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3411956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaraLee/pseuds/CaraLee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU built off of the titular line from the pilot episodes of Young Justice.<br/>Dick Grayson comes home from the events at CADMUS to the enjoyment of his various siblings, friends, and sibling-like people.<br/>Now extended: One chapter per episode of the first season. Plus a few extras.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Independence Day/Fireworks

**Author's Note:**

> So, my first reaction to Robin’s line in the Pilot episode of Young Justice “Pass! Batcave’s crowded enough.” was “Oh honey, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”  
> I mean, if you count Alfred (which you should) there are three of them. Barbara hasn’t even started as Batgirl yet, let alone are the other Batkids there.  
> My second reaction was “but what if they were?”  
> Because the saying may be “three’s a crowd” but I don’t really think that a kid who grew up in a circus would think so.  
> Enter the Batbrats. (And because this is an AU, Babs is there.)  
> Dick Grayson – 13 – Bruce Wayne’s ward. Robin  
> Cassandra Cain - 10 - Bruce Wayne's adopted daughter. Black Bat  
> Jason Todd – 9/10 – Bruce Wayne’s adopted son  
> Damian Wayne – 4 – Bruce Wayne’s biological son  
> Timothy Drake – 8 – The kid next door (who pretty much lives at the manor because his parents are never home)  
> Stephanie Brown – 8/9 – A Wayne Foundation kid (Like Artemis, gets scholarships and funding from the Wayne Foundation)  
> Barbara Gordon – 15 – The commissioner’s daughter. Batgirl

As he steps out of the zeta into the cave, Dick looks around at the multitude of eyes boring holes in his head and winces. The Batcave is _more_ than crowded enough.

“So…” Jason sidles up next to him, ignoring Bruce’s disapproving presence. “I hear you, Kid Idiot and Fishboy went rogue.” He grins. “And you didn’t take me?”

“How do you even know about that?” Dick gapes at his little brother. “I don’t think there have even been any reports filed yet!”

“Babs hacked the Justice League communications.” Steph chirps from where she is perched next to Cass on the hood of the Batmobile, a plate of cookies and a grumpy preschooler in between them.

Dick shoots a glare at his red-headed school-mate, who simply shrugs, looking quite comfortable seated in front of the Bat-computer, her cowl down and green eyes amused. “It wasn’t just me. Tim hacked the traffic and security cameras around CADMUS. We got to see your grand finale.” She gives him a stern look. “Which is why I know that you are going to let Alfred look at your ribs. Wally may be fine in a couple of hours, but _you_ don’t have accelerated healing, Boy Wonder.”

“Where is Tim?” Dick asks as he resignedly hops onto the medical table and strips off his tunic as Alfred begins poking and prodding at him.

“He had to go home.” Steph volunteers through her mouthful of cookie. “His new housekeeper actually pays attention sometimes, so he can’t stay over too late too often.”

“And you?” Dick shoots back, cutting off short with a clench of his teeth as Alfred finds a particularly sore spot.

“Sleepover.” Cass supplies, lifting Damian down from the hood and landing lightly beside him. “Mrs. Brown said we could.”

“I however,” Barbara says cheerfully, getting to her feet. “Need to get home. My Dad’s shift should be ending soon and if I’m not in bed when he gets back I will have a lot of explaining to do.” She hugs the girls and ruffles Damian’s hair, ignoring the death glare he gives her for it. “See you later kiddos! Batman, Alfred.”

She disappears from Dick’s line of sight behind the cases that are currently all empty except for Cass’ BlackBat uniform, and a few seconds later he hears her motorcycle start up. He is distracted by Alfred beginning to clean his cuts and by the time he can really focus on anything again, Babs is gone and Damian is standing in front of him, glaring up at him fiercely.

Dick knows he is grinning like an idiot and doesn’t particularly care. “Hey Dami!”

If possible, the miniature scowl grows darker, the effect somewhat marred by the generous amounts of baby fat Damian has. “Gwayson.” He growls.

Dick’s smile gets bigger. “Yes, Little D?”

Damian just scowls harder before marching up to him stiffly, giving the harshest, shortest hug of all time to Dick’s ankle (It is all he can reach) before turning and marching off again towards the stairs. The entire family watches him with varying levels of amusement, Cass and Steph following him towards the upstairs, waving goodnight to Dick as they go.

Jason hops up on the opposite bed, sitting cross-legged and giving Dick a very focused stare. “So. A clone of Superman? Any idea how that happened?”

Dick shrugs, then winces at the pain the movement causes. "Nope. Nothing. I didn't have enough time to get into their systems."

"You okay?" The casual way Jason asks almost hides the worry in his eyes. "You did get a giant building dropped on top of you."

Dick shrugs again, knowing from the left-over twinge in his ankle that he must have wrenched it earlier, no way had Damian’s hug-thing caused that all by itself. “Yeah, I'll be pretty sore for awhile though. I just don't want anymore super-powered heavy people standing on my chest again anytime soon.”

A grin that makes Dick a little nervous. "You have a total fanboy freakout over mini-Supes like you did with the big one?"

Bruce is suddenly there, looming, still dressed as Batman, though the cowl isn’t up. “Jason. Go upstairs. It’s past your bedtime.” Jason pouts, but slips onto the floor, tossing a sympathetic (and slightly gleeful) look at Dick over his shoulder as he bounds up the stairs.

Alfred switches to inspecting his ankle and Dick wishes he were a million miles away as Bruce turns to him.

He is going to be grounded for the rest of his life.


	2. Welcome to Happy Harbor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guess what just became a series?  
> I've also re-written the end of the first chapter, so you might want to re-read that one.

Babs grins as she touches down on the rooftop where a familiar figure is perched, looking out over the city. “Hey, Boy Wonder. What’s shaking?”

Dick looks up at her with a smile and a nod of the head. “Hey, BG. Wanna sit?” He indicates the patch of concrete beside him.

“Don’t mind if I do.” Barbara drops down onto the edge, feet swung out to hang down the side of the building, feeling the oddly hollow _thunk_ of the backs of her boots knocking against the brick wall. It is strange, seeing her friend this still. Usually he is a constant blur of movement. (Jason's convinced he is ADHD and keeps trying to persuade Bruce to get him tested.) Right now, he is tense, and ever so slightly hunched in on himself, as motionless as one of the gargoyles farther down the roof. Maybe she’ll be able to find a way to work “Bat-Therapist” into her college applications. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Dick gives her a scarily accurate approximation of Alfred’s disapproving look that manages to show through the mask. “Why, Miss Batgirl! I am offended that you consider my thoughts to be of such trivial value.” His British accent is flawless. Just like his “Standard Gothamite” accent.

She snorts and bumps her shoulder against his. “Hey Hotshot, I’m on a budget here.” His laugh is genuine but shaky and she knows he knows she caught it. “Seriously,” she says quietly, nudging him more gently this time. “What’s wrong?”

He stares off into the depths of the city and doesn’t answer.

She can play this game. Fishing time. “So I hear your Team had their first mission. Sort of.”

He shrugs, visible only because of the shifting of his cape. His mouth tenses even further though. _Gotcha._ “So, something to do with the team. Spill kiddo.”

He sighs and flops back onto the roof, staring up at where the stars would be, if you could see stars in Gotham. “It’s been more than a week.”

She waits as he seems to struggle with his words for a moment.

“It’s been a week and…they are already giving nicknames and there is _relationship drama_ and-”

And she suddenly understands what this is about. “And they don’t even know your real name.”

He nods. “I mean, KF knows of course, but,” he sighes. “You know how he is, it’s like he flip-flops between…”

“Between being super-sweet and sensitive and being a loudmouthed jerk?” Babs fills in with a small smile.

“Yeah, that.” Dick flaps a hand in the air in a dismissive manner. “It’s just, he was flirting with Miss M. and joking about how I wasn’t allowed to tell them my name and, I dunno. I guess it just hit me.” He must be more upset about it than he’s letting on because his voice is gaining the faintest blur to it that sounds a little like Eastern Europe and a little like South America and a little like everywhere and a lot like the scared eight year old her father brought home with him one night and said would be staying with them for the weekend until they could get him a foster home placement because some jerk of a social worker had thought it acceptable to toss him into juvie hall.

His accent only slips when he’s really, really tired or really, really upset. (And even then, only when he’s relaxed, with people he trusts and who know the secret.) He’s even mostly phased it out of Richard Grayson’s speech. She misses it to be honest. Sometimes she thinks he does too.

“Do you think you’ll be able to tell them eventually?”

Dick shrugs again. “Who knows? I mean, I’ve known Speedy since he was Speedy, in both civilian and hero identities, and he still doesn’t know who I am.”

Babs makes a face behind her cowl. Roy Harper is okay. Fiercely loyal, but he’s impulsive and hot-headed and really wouldn’t be her first choice to reveal secret identities to. She’s with Bruce on that one.

“But Kid Flash knows.”

“Yeah, ‘cause I told him against orders.”

 _Point._ “And your brothers and sister know. And…your little stalker and his tiny girlfriend know.” They really needed to come up with codenames to refer to Tim and Steph when in costume. “And I know.”

Her reward for that is a warm, genuine Grayson smile. “Yeah. Thanks BG.”

She reaches out and pulls him into a hug. “No problem Brat Wonder. I’m always here. You know that.”

She feels his nod, more than sees it, but the way he clings to her like a lifeline means even more.


	3. Drop Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a general announcement, the early chapters will be setting up some of the inter-personal relationships in the Bat-Family. Interaction with the Team will come, but we still have a few more chapters to go first.

Tim tries to ignore the presence hovering over his shoulder. It is proving _very_ hard to ignore.

"Hurry up, Tiny Tim. We don't have all day!"

Tim gives his shadow an unimpressed look. "Hacking Justice League databanks has to be done perfectly. If you wanted it done perfectly and _quickly_ , you should have asked Babs."

Jason pokes him in retaliation. "I thought you were supposed to be the little, genius, know-it-all."

Tim flushes and pushes Jason's hand away without looking away from the laptop screen. "Babs is a better hacker," he mutters. "And she actually _is_ a genius. I'm not."

The snort Jason gives in response tickles his ear. "Yeah, tell me the other one."

"It's true! Tim insists, fingers still flying over the keyboard. "I don't have an eidetic memory or advanced processing abilities like Barbara does. I'm not...special like Dick."

He ignores Jason's mutter of "Special's one way to put it."

"And I don't have street smarts like you or Stephanie or skills like Cass. Even Damian-"

"Hey!" Jason shoves him harder this time, almost knocking him off the beanbag chair. "Stop that."

Tim finally looks away from his computer. (Which is linked in to the Bat-System) Jason is right up next to him, glaring. He feels a little intimidated, even though he knows Jason would never hurt him. Jason was single-handedly responsible for Tim's bully-free existence at school last year. And Tim knows he's spoken with Cass about her maintaining that now that Jason will be moving up to junior high.

"I'm just me." He says quietly. "Nothing special."

"That." Jason says, poking him in the chest, his green eyes angry. "Is a load of crap. You're f-freakin' brilliant! You work harder than anyone I've ever known, except _maybe_ Bruce, and he's an obsessive freak. You're better at connecting clues than Bruce too! I mean, you're not even out in the field and you've solved what, three cases?"

"Four." Tim admits softly, fidgeting nervously with the hem of his hoodie. He can feel the heat as a blush spread over his face and neck. He silently cursed his "Twilight Vampire Skin" (Steph's words) and tries unsuccessfully to defend himself as Jason comes in for a noogie. He finally manages to beat the overenthusiastic older boy off with the hardcover copy of Treasure Island from the bedside table. That successfully distracts Jason.

"Show some respect for classic literature, brat." He is too busy checking the book over for damage to interrupt Tim's hacking for the next thirty seconds or so, which lets Tim get back in the rhythm and actually into the JLA's systems.

"Found it."

They read the reports from the Team's mission the night before. Tim is rather surprised that Dick isn't the leader, though he admits that Aqualad might be a better choice for the time being. If only because it will mean there is one part of his life where Dick _dioesn't_ have to be the responsible one.

"Dude," Jason says as they watch the footage of the facility exploding. "I don't think they quite grasp the concept of 'covert.'"


	4. Schooled

Black Bat is on patrol when the call comes in.

“Cave to Black Bat. Do you copy?” It’s Jason.

She raises a finger to activate the transmitter in her comm. It’s usually off. She doesn’t talk much

“Here.”

“We have a situation headed towards Gotham. Robin says that the android Amazo has been retrieved and reassembled by Ivo. They are coming here.”

“Batgirl?”

“She’s unavailable.”

She thinks. She remembers. Barbara has Father-Daughter…date night tonight.

She is on her own.

Black Bat smiles beneath her cowl.

***

Artemis lands on the roof of Gotham Academy with a nearly inaudible thump. She takes a moment to look the grounds over sardonically. The money the Gotham elite shell out for their precious little kiddies. There is a freakin’ stained glass window on the front door.

There is noise coming from one of the outlying wings and she moves in. Fortunately there are windows in the layered roof and she is able to look in. It’s a gym, probably three times as big as Gotham North’s. What she sees inside is nothing like she was expecting.

She’s heard about Amazo of course, eavesdropping on her father and his…colleagues. But she’d never seen it in person. And yet here it is, tearing up the gym as it fights…what looks like a bunch of superheroes her own age. That is a miniature, angry Superman, and Robin and Kid Flash!

A Kid Flash who is currently being held off the ground and crushed by arms thicker than his entire body.

She doesn’t have to think, she just smashes the window. Draw, breathe, release.

She barely has time to process that she just saved the life of _Kid Flash_ before there is a flicker of shadow in her peripheral and Artemis whirls, arrow on the string, cursing internally as her hoodie briefly obscures her vision. When she can see clearly again, her heart jumps to her throat. Standing no more than two arms’ length away is Black Bat.

Artemis’ first thought is “I’m going to die.” Her second is “No one ever said he/she/it was so tiny.” Most of the words used to describe the most recent Bat to haunt the streets of Gotham were along the lines of “terrifying,” “never saw it coming,” and “total annihilation.”

Nowhere had _“Baby_ Bat” been included.

Behind her she is vaguely aware of Mini-Superman shouting about channeling his anger and a lot of crashing. She can’t look away from Black Bat though and she is not sure if it is terror or wonder that is the reason why. Maybe some of both. The other…person takes a slow step towards her, then another, gliding up so that they are standing right next to Artemis, looking down into the gym. Artemis turns cautiously, making sure to keep Black Bat her primary focus. In her peripheral vision she watches as Amazo’s head is blown off around mini-Superman’s fist.

This is so surreal.

As the young superheroes beneath gather around the fallen android, Robin (and wow, he’s pretty tiny too. No one ever talks about Gotham's feared vigilantes being such shrimps) looks up to where Artemis and Black Bat are hidden in the shadows. He can’t see them, it’s impossible for him to see them, but he nods at them anyway and turns back to speak with Kid Flash as the doors to the gym open and Aqualad runs in followed by a flying green girl who goes immediately to Mini-Superman.

Black Bat pulls back and Artemis takes a step to the side to put some more distance between them. So far none of the moves Black Bat has made have been threatening, but you never know when that will change. She’s aware that her breathing has sped up and grown heavy with anxiety and she struggles to get it under control. Black Bat just watches.

Just when Artemis is certain she is going to have a full-blown freak out right there on the roof of Gotham freakin’ Academy, Black Bat takes two steps to the side and motions with one hand, clearly opening a way for Artemis to escape.

She doesn’t hesitate to take it.

***

When Batman and Robin get back to the cave Dick pulls his mask off immediately and turns on Bruce before the Batmobile has even come to a complete halt.

“You don’t think it was Roy, do you.” It isn’t a question.

“The arrow was not consistent with Roy Harper’s preferred weapons.” Batman exits the vehicle and Dick jumps out after him. Cass is sitting in front of the Bat-Computer, dressed in sweats, her hair still damp from the shower. She smiles at Dick and pulls up four profiles on the screens.

The first is the file for Lawrence "Crusher" Crock aka Sportsmaster, then Paula Ngyen Crock aka Huntress (Inactive), and Jade Ngyen aka Cheshire. Dick is familiar with all three, he, Cass, and Jason are all required to know the files. (Even Damian knows some of the more dangerous ones he is likely to come into contact with.) It’s the last file that he doesn’t know. Artemis Crock, age fifteen. Bruce pulls off his cowl. “You followed her and made sure she went straight home?”

Cass nods and taps the desk with a finger. “She wants to help. Fix…what father, sister broke.”

“Abilities?” Bruce is scrutinizing the bare-bones file closely.

“Inexperienced. Well-trained. Her father…taught. Does not move as much like Huntress.”

Bruce nods. “We can’t let her run around Gotham unsupervised.”

Cass smiles her smug smile and uses the particular cadence that shows up in her speech when she is mimicking something she’s heard, usually from Barbara. “Birds of a feather.”

Bruce sighs and pulls his cowl back on. “I will speak with Green Arrow and then we will speak with her mother.”

Dick frowns at the screen. “Does this mean we’re getting another girl on the team? ‘Cause Miss M is cool, but Wally acts weird when she’s around. It was funny at first but it’s getting irritating.”

There was a twitch that was the Batman equivalent of a silly grin. “We’ll see.”


	5. Infiltrator

Jason scowls at the screen in front of him. Technically he isn't supposed to be in the Cave at all but he'd snuck down about an hour earlier after a nightmare had woken him. He switches the force of his glare (He watched Bruce and took notes. Its a good glare.) from the computer to the empty cases across the room.

It isn't fair. Dick had become Robin before he was even quite nine, no matter what the official record said, and Cassandra had pretty much been Black Bat before Bruce adopted her last November. And here he is, days away from turning ten, and still not allowed out on the streets. He knows he isn't in Cass's league, not even close, but he's hardly helpless. And he's going crazy, not being able to help outside of occasional work in the Cave. He's not like Timmy or Babs, he can do the computer sh-stuff but he isn't _good_ at it the way they are, he doesn't read code like it is English. Hitting things is what he is good at and it is just what Bruce won't let him _do_.

Instead he is stuck here in the Cave, while his _family_ is out there, almost every night, risking their lives and he can't be there to help watch their backs. All he can do is watch them fall in his sleep, struck down by the innumerable enemies lurking in the darkness. Watch as Cass is surprised from behind, as Barbara is outnumbered, as Dick's lines fail him, and as Bruce-

He jumps as a blanket settles over his shoulders and a cup of tea is placed in front of him. "You know," Alfred's warm voice says. "Hiding alone in the dark and brooding is not a healthy way to handle your problems, no matter what Master Bruce would like to think."

Usually the butler's dry humor is enough to get Jason to at least crack a smile but he only shrugs. His usual routine on nights when the dreams refused him sleep and Bruce was still out was to join Alfred in the kitchen, where they would sit in companionable silence with tea and books, the quiet warmth of Alfred's presence enough to hold the demons at bay. Tonight he'd needed to be down here.

Alfred takes the seat beside him, steam wafting upwards from his own cup. Jason lifts his in both hands and just sits, staring into the depths of the china as if it holds the secrets of the universe. "Might I ask you what is wrong?"

Jason shrugs again and take a sip. "Nothing." He says after he swallows. "I'm fine."

"Ah." He knows without looking that Alfred's eyebrow is raised skeptically. "I apologize Master Jason, I was unaware that such behavior was an indicator of being 'fine'."

Jason growls at the tea and takes another sip, his eyes turning up, almost against his will to the screen hosting the readouts from the suits. Batman and Black Bat's vitals are holding steady (though that doesn't mean much with Cass, who takes zen to a whole new level) but Robin's are raised, consistent with physical activity and/or stress.

And then the alarm goes off. An alert flashes onto the screen and Jason is jumping into action before he realizes it. "Dick's emergency override was used at the WayneTech facility in Philadelphia." He reports, looking to the secondary screen as Alfred pulls up the security footage, both live and from two minutes ago. On one half of the screen they watch Robin connect his wrist computer into one of the employee computers, on the other, they watch as he bursts into the building, overriding the lock-down and rolling under the blast door without any hesitation at all. "He's uploading something." Jason exchanges a worried glance with Alfred, neither of them saying what they are both thinking.

For Dick to risk linking Robin to his civilian identity like that...the situation must be desperate.

Alfred pulls up another feed from the cameras. Superboy, engaged in a fight with...Jason runs through his mental list of villains. Professor Ojo, loosely (as loosely as anyone gets) connected with the League of Assassins. He swears and scrambles to contact Bruce just as Superboy lays Ojo out with a punch and Dick, on the other screen, gives a celebratory whoop and says something. Jason squints at the screen. He's pretty good at lip-reading, but he's also pretty sure that whatever Dick just said involved some of his mangled "words." Because he only got something about infiltrators.

***

By the time Jason finishes doctoring the security recording and files to show that Robin had made it through _before_ the lockdown door had closed and erased the use of Richard Grayson's emergency override from the system he has nearly forgotten all about the nightmare that had brought him down to the Cave in the first place. Cass came in about halfway through, hugged him goodnight and smacked a kiss on his cheek before disappearing up the stairs to the manor. Dick returned just as Cass left, gave Jason a sleepy thank you for handling digital cleanup, and headed off to his room, though Jason doubts he made it past Damian's. (Unless Damian had made a nightmare induced move of his own to Bruce or Dick's bed, in which case Dick would end up there with him.)

He sits, staring at the cold dregs of his tea, for Alfred only knows how long until the Batmobile drives in and parks in it's place of honor. He curls up a little further under the blanket, just watching as Bruce pulls off the cowl and disappears into the showers. The rhythmic sounds of water nearly send him to sleep but he manages to keep his eyes open against his increasing weariness until Bruce emerges, wearing sweats and shaking his hair dry.

"Jason? what are you doing still up?" A warm hand ruffles his hair and Jason feels a wave of exhaustion as his tension melts away in response.

"Waitin' f'r you." He mumbles, not resisting as Bruce picks him up, blanket and all, and heads for the stairs.

He falls asleep before they've reached the top, safe in the knowledge that everyone in his little family is home and whole this night.

(And if he will make vocal complaints the next morning when he wakes up with his face shoved in Cass' armpit, Bruce a strong, guardian presence at his back, and his foot asleep because the Dick-Damian unit used it as a pillow...No one will take it personally.)


	6. Interlude: Happy Birthday Jason!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, once again, I have changed the age-range for the Batkids slightly. I'm sorry, this should be the last time, I promise. I'm putting the new ages here so you don't have to go back to chapter one to see it.
> 
> Babs is 15  
> Dick is 13  
> Cass is 10  
> Jason, as of this chapter, is 10  
> Stephanie is 9  
> Tim is 8  
> Damian is 4

Wally eyes the colorful piece of stationary skeptically. "Dude, why would your brat brother invite me to his birthday party?"

Dick shrugs and Wally knows that he is rolling his eyes behind his sunglasses. "I don't know. Maybe he was hoping you'd distract me from tormenting him the whole time."

"Or maybe," Wally lifts the invitation cautiously between his thumb and forefinger. "Agent A invited me, hoping to distract you from tormenting Jason the whole time."

"That...is actually very likely." Dick admits. "If only so that it won't be the exact same people as Stephanie's party. She just turned nine and had her party out at the manor last week."

"Okay." Wally nods. "I'll come."

Hopefully this will go better than the _last_ time he'd visited.

***

No one is going to be at the party who isn't already aware of the whole superhero thing so Wally is able to run from Keystone to the manor. Aunt Iris had zetaed to Gotham and Uncle Barry is going to run her from there so they will be a few minutes late, knowing Barry.

He slides to a stop in a cloud of dust in front of the gate and taps on the intercom. Alfred buzzes him in before he's even opened his mouth. (and that is _fast_ ) Wally dashes around to the back yard where the party is, stopping a safe distance away and scanning for Dick.

"Hello Wally." The speedster jumps in surprise and turns around fast enough to make anyone watching swear he'd turned invisible for the tiniest fraction of a second. Timmy Drake is blinking up at him, wearing a t-shirt that is several sizes too big for him and seems to be trying to slip off his shoulder. Based on color (red) and design (rock band advertisement) Wally'd bet it belongs to Jason.

Tim notices what he is looking at and frowns. As small as he is, it looks a lot more like a pout that would have had M'gann squealing about cuteness. "Mrs. Mac wouldn't let me come unless I was wearing a suit." He explains. "The shorts are Cass'."

They are cargo shorts, so Wally honestly wouldn't have been able to tell. Though now that Tim mentions it, he is pretty sure there are some little pink flowers embroidered around the pockets.

"Wally!" Dick bounds over, a wide grin on his face and the Demon Toddler clinging to his back like a psychotic little monkey of some sort.

"Hey dude," They fist-bump and Wally determinedly ignores the possessive glare he is getting from the Baby Bat. He knows Damian doesn't like him. He's known that since the midget had tried to stab him the first time they'd met. (Apparently he is like that with Tim too. And just about anyone who dares to touch "his Gwayson.") "What's up?"

Dick grins and, despite the imminent threat of death from jealous tiny ninja assassin, Wally feels a surge of satisfaction at seeing his best friend so relaxed. "Nothing much. Alfred said to tell you there's a plate for you in the gazebo."

Wally is off almost before the last word is out of Dick's mouth. Running from Missouri to New Jersey is hungry work, okay!

Alfred is a god among butlers. The "plate" is actually a large platter covered in foods right out of a "how to feed your runner" guide-book, all prepared to perfection. As Wally downs the last blueberry, he eyes the second "plate" labeled "Mr. Bartholomew Allen" consideringly. Surely Alfred won't know. Just one bite...

" _Alfred always knows."_ He remembers Dick telling him seriously the first time Wally had come to the manor. _"Always._ " He decides not to risk it. Despite what a lot of people think, he isn't a complete idiot. And he has the AP scores to prove it. (Of course, he also has scars on his arms from where he blew himself up trying to get superpowers. It worked, but still...)

***

He rejoins the main party just as Uncle Barry and Aunt Iris show up. Aunt Iris makes a beeline for Jason, to wish him happy birthday and exclaim over how much he's grown since she last saw him. Uncle Barry makes a beeline for the gazebo. Wally takes a nanosecond to mourn the almond-breaded salmon.

Cassandra and Stephanie are disappearing around the side of the hedge, dragging poor Timmy with them, sneaking looks over their shoulders at Jason, who looks very uncomfortable with all the attention he is getting. Aunt Iris has stepped aside and been replaced by Catwoman, who gives him a hug and a kiss on each cheek. _Lucky duck._ _And he's too young to appreciate it too._ Wally _doesn't_ _get hugs and kisses from voluptuous supervillainesses on his birthday. (Well, there was that one time with Golden Glider...)_

He finds Dick talking to Dr. Thompson under one of the trees. The doctor is under the tree at least, sitting on a fancy stone bench. Dick is perched on one of the lower branches, Damian sitting sullenly beside him. "Feel better?" Dick asks. Wally has to crane his neck at an uncomfortable angle to be able to look up at him. "You don't look like you're about to starve to death right in front of us anymore."

Wally grins and gives a thumbs-up. "I'm good to go! Alfred is the best, dude. Seriously, almost as good as Aunt Iris."

Damian gives a snort that is far more sarcastic than any brat his age has any right to be able to produce and Dick claps a hand over his mouth to prevent him saying whatever insult he had been going to toss out there. Wally is grateful, he really doesn't want to have to defend his aunt's honor against a four year old, especially since there would be revenge. Wally would win the initial encounter, but it would be extremely painful in the long run. He wishes that he didn't know this from experience.

The two of them come down from the tree and Dick makes their excuses to Dr. Thompson, saying something about sending Alfred over that briefly makes thoughts cross Wally's mind that he wishes he could erase, and they head back towards the table near the topiary. Damian makes a point of walking in-between Dick and Wally. At least, he does until Alfred beckons Dick over to the side and Wally's now ex-best friend scoops the brat up and dumps him in Wally's arms. "Be right back, Walls, stay with Dami, would you." And _freakin' disappears._ Supey is now Wally's best friend.

Somehow he finds himself in a glaring contest with a Bat Toddler, and he _knows_ this is a bad idea but he can't exactly look away now that it's started. Damian's glare deepens and Wally scowls back with a surge of irritation.

It isn't like he can't understand the kid. He knows just what Dick means to him and why he hates Wally so much. Wally has vivid memories of just how deeply he'd loathed Barry, back when he'd first met him and he was just this random guy that was distracting Aunt Iris. Aunt Iris, the first and (back then) only person who _loved_ Wally and _cared_. And then suddenly she was dating Barry and Wally didn't get to see her as often. He remembers that soul-gripping terror that she would forget about him and leave with Barry, because then he didn't know just how awesome Barry was and Barry hadn't yet become the person who took him to science fairs and museums and let him explore his lab. Dick is Damian's Aunt Iris. The person who saved him.

And yeah, he doesn't exactly see himself having as great an impact on Damian as Uncle Barry has had on him, but he isn't exactly planning on sweeping Dick off into the sunset, never to return either. And something that Iris and Bary have taught him is that love isn't a finite thing and the more you give, the more you have _to_ give.

Sadly, he's also pretty sure that every single member of the Bat Family missed that memo on _some_ level, and what kind of friend would Wally be if he left his bro to explain that concept to the world's most dysfunctional toddler all by himself?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The irony of this all is, is that I had Wally in a happy family situation with loving, supportive, if occasionally awkwardly unsure, parents. And then I wrote this chapter and the moment with Wally and Damian just happened.  
> *headdesk* I _like_ "Happy home life" Wally! I love the idea that he isn't an alien outcast, or a genetically modified clone, or tragically orphaned, or anything. He's just a normal kid (with superpowers) who wants to do the right thing and help people. I find it such a fascinating aspect of his character. Oh well. What the plot bunnies command shall be done. And what the heck, it's an AU anyway.  
>  Anyway, I hope you liked this story about Jason's birthday party that has no Jason in it.


	7. Denial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a fun one. I got to have "The Dynamic Duo Thing"! And some plot even! And headcannon and background! (Also, Wally has been invading this story quite frequently. That was unforeseen.)  
> 

"It's not fair!"

Dick looked from the picture he was drawing with Damian at the sound of Jason's shout. Tim, Cass, and Steph all froze, glancing nervously at the door to the hallway. Alfred paused at the stove.

Jason didn't actually fight with Bruce that much, usually it was _Dick_ doing that. Most people wouldn't believe it but of the two oldest "Wayne Boys," both of whom had what Alfred described as "flash-fire" tempers, it was Jason who had better control of his. But when he _did_ lose his temper, it was spectacular.

"You're ten."

"So's Cass!"

There was a moment of silence.

"Okay, so Cass is special, yeah. But Dick was eight!"

"Nine."

"He was eight when you let him go after Zucco!"

Dick flinched and felt very aware of everyone else in the kitchen very carefully _not_ looking at him.

"He was trained!"

"As an acrobat. Not a fighter! I have more training now than he did then!"

Alfred wiped his hands and disappeared into the other room where the volume dropped significantly as if a flip had been switched. Everyone released the breath they had apparently been holding and exchanged nervous looks.

Before there was time for anyone to say anything, the door flew open and Jason stormed in, scowling, and flung himself into the chair next to Stephanie. "What are you looking at?" He snarled at Timmy, who seemed ready to ask what was wrong. Timmy shrunk down silently in his seat and Cass leaned around and slapped Jason on the side of the head.

"What the-" Even an angry Jason fell silent in the ace of Cass' disapproving frown. He glared back for a moment before ducking his head. "Whatever. Sorry Timmers, I'm not mad at you. Promise."

Bruce came in, looking tired, and Jason straightened in his chair. Bruce looked at him for a long moment, before sighing. "You will spend a year with intensified training. Offensive training instead of what you have received up to this point which has been focused mostly on self-defense and escape and evade. You will also have an increased focus on forensics and deduction. At the end of the year, when you are eleven, we will discuss this again."

"Really!" Jason was practically glowing, he was so excited.

Bruce inclined his head. "Really."

***

Instead of going to the mountain that night, Dick went on patrol with Bruce. They were investigating corruption in City Hall and were going after some information that it would be a lot easier for Robin to reach than Batman. (No matter how good a detective and crime fighter Bruce was, he just didn't fit through ventilation shafts.)

Black Bat had gone out an hour earlier to meet up with Batgirl on the edges of the East End and Robin had a sneaking suspicion they were also planning on helping out Catwoman with some of the cat burglar's non-felonious pursuits. (Well, non-felonious in the sense of not stealing things anyway.)

The ride out in the Batmobile was quiet, Robin not really saying anything, lost in thought. They parked in Crime Alley and took to the roofs until they arrived at their destination. Despite his racing thoughts, Robin was in and out with little trouble, lifting the copied flash drive in triumph as he rejoined Batman on the roof across the street from their target.

Outside of brief detours to stop two muggings and a break-in, they had finished in the streets for the night and headed back into the Cave with the intel. While it was being decripted Dick approached Bruce. "What was that about, with Jason earlier. You're going to let him out?"

Bruce sighed, and slumped ever so slightly in his seat, as much as the Batsuit allowed. "Jason is too much like you. I knew that I would not be able to keep him out of it forever, but I had hoped for more time." The look he gave Dick was almost pleading. "I never wanted this. For any of you."

Dick did what he did best and lunged in to give Bruce a hug. "I know, B. We all know." He pulled back a little. "You gave us a family, Bruce. Me, Jason, Cass, we were already fighting. You gave us something to fight _for_."

* * *

 

"I'm telling you, dude." Wally said, shoving another handful of popcorn in his mouth. "It was weird. I'm pretty sure that most of the stuff is actually only theoretical yet. Unless Wayne Tech's developed something you haven't told me about yet." He gave Dick a sidelong glance, slightly worried by the unnatural silence. His friend hadn't said a single word during his recounting of last night's mission.

Dick wasn't even looking at him _or_ the movie, instead staring blankly at one of the walls. Before Wally could ask if he was okay, he finally said something.

"I met Kent Nelson once."

Wally blinked.

"I was...six, maybe? It was before my _Puri daj_ died. We were in...France? I think? He came to talk to my _Puri daj_ and _Beebee_ Karla. They were both True-seers"

Wally, despite what some people (Artemis) thought, was not a completely insensitive idiot and managed to keep his mouth shut. Dick laid a gentle hand on the toddler curled up asleep beside him on the sofa, an action that would have been greeted with violent wakefulness had it been performed by anyone else.

"Without him, we wouldn't even know that Dami existed, let alone actually have him."

"I'm not tracking." Wally admitted. "I thought you have him because you took a wrong turn inside a Shadows base and saved his life? Not because you met Kent Nelson three years before he was even born."

"It wasn't a 'wrong turn.'" Dick said softly. Before Nelson left our camp, he told me 'When you are supposed to go left and up, go right and down instead.'" He was stroking Damian now, like a cat. "I forgot all about it until B and I got separated in that fortress and I was running for the courtyard. Then it was like I heard his voice in my head, telling me to go the opposite way I needed to."

He shrugged. "So I did. And found one of the rogues (they were having internal problems in the League of Shadows) trying to kill a little kid. So I knocked out the ninja and asked the kid where his parents were. He pulls himself up, as regal as you please, and announces that he is the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul and someday he will kill me and take my place by his father's side."

Dick's speech had dropped into a mimicry of Damian's peculiar blend of lisping British stiffness and the sing-song lilt that comes from the Shadows' primary dialect of Coptic Arabic. "He looked about ready to try and kill me right there and then, which we didn't have time for, and I was a little in shock because, you know, Talia. So I just said that he couldn't kill me 'cause I'd just saved him and he owed me a life debt."

Dick flashed him one of his ridiculously innocent and charming grins that Jason claimed were why he didn't get in as much trouble in school as he should. "He pitched a fit over that, screaming about how I was unworthy, blah, blah, blah, Talia's opinion of me as regurgitated by a brainwashed baby, blah, blah. That's when the League ninjas came in and dragged us both off to Talia and Ra's. Bruce showed up and saved me and I took Damian with us. I explained what I knew to B on the way back to the Batwing. I don't think I've ever seen him look so mad. He sent us home with the autopilot and went back to talk to Talia. They fought pretty badly and she hates me even more now but we got to keep Damian, so I think it was a pretty good trade off."

"When did _he_ stop hating you?" Wally asked through a mouthful of popcorn. "I don't _think_ he hates you anyway. it's a little hard to tell sometimes."

Dick gave him a reproachful look "He's trying, alright. It's not like Talia gave him healthy emotional role models."

Wally threw his hands up in an "I come in peace" gesture. "Hey! I'm not sayin' he hasn't gotten better over the past few months!"

Dick glared, but let it go. "I don't really know. It didn't take long, all he really wanted was for someone to care about _him_. Not 'The Son of the Bat,' but him, Damian."

Wally grinned and patted his shoulder. "Well, you've done good with him, Mama Bird."

Dick threw popcorn at him. "You're not allowed to talk to Jason anymore without supervision."

Wally grinned wider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random aside, guess who was Dr. Fate in the Flashpoint reality. You might have heard of him a couple times, this minor character known as Dick Grayson. (Also, Jason was a drug-lordling-minion-of-Jason-Blood-turned-priest and Selina was Oracle.)  
> Anywho, let me know what you think in the comment box below! Thanks for reading!


	8. Interlude 2: We Need to Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the wait. Between Real Life and...everything else I've hit a bit of a writing slump the past couple of months. That seems to be over and semi-regular updates should re-commence!  
> Here is a sort of teaser.

Most people wouldn’t be able to hear the minute swish or near-silent landing as Superman alighted on the rooftop. Robin isn’t most people. He doesn’t turn around, just keeps looking at the Daily Planet’s globe as he perches on the railing on the roof of the third tallest building in Metropolis. (This meeting is too important to be interrupted by Luthor’s security, as much fun as pushing the man’s buttons is.)

“You wanted to talk with me.” Superman sounds wary, which means he likely has some idea about _why_ Robin contacted him.

“It’s lonely.” He says, instead of answering properly. “When you don’t have a proper home and you know nobody wants you.”

He turns around and pulls his mask off so they are eye to eye. “I can’t even imagine how much it would hurt to also have been rejected by your hero.”

Superman takes a step back and looks about to fly away so Robin rushes out his next words. “I’m not saying you need to be his _parent,_ Kal.”

That earns him a sardonic look. “Batman seems to think I should.”

Robin shrugs. “Bats is on edge. The situation is hitting him a little close to home.” Supes looks a confused so he taps _Baby Bat_ out in Morse code on the railing and watches the realization dawn. “But what Superboy needs isn’t necessarily a father. Or not for you to be his father anyway.” He shrugs, knowing that it makes his cape ripple in a pretty cool way. _Hey, it’s the small things in life_. “I can’t speak for him, but he would be happy to just have you as family. Or even just as a part-time mentor.”

Superman opens his mouth but Robin isn’t done. “Look, I get it. You didn’t plan for this, you had absolutely nothing to do with it, for all intents and purposes you were treated as a lab rat, what with the stealing of genetic material and all, and I don’t expect you to just…be okay with it. But he’s here and he needs help. And none of it was _his_ fault.”

He gives Clark his most serious look, the one he uses to convince Damian to not try and kill Tim and gave the juvenile judge who had eventually awarded Bruce custody. “Bats and Canary are doing their best, but they aren’t Kryptonian. None of us are. There are some things we just _can’t_ help him with.”

“Family isn’t about genetics.” Clark says tightly and Robin scoffs.

“Of all people, you and I know that. But that doesn’t mean that you have to deliberately exclude someone _because_ of genetics.” He pulls his grapple from his belt and readies it. “Also, I’d hope my siblings don’t figure out exactly what is going on. Kids being neglected and abandoned is something of a sore point with us.” He puts his mask back on. “We’ve all been there. And I can’t imagine _your_ parents would be all that happy either.”

And he takes off, hoping that Clark will at least think about what he’d said. Bruce had tried and failed, hopefully this will have more of an effect. (He honestly would prefer to _not_ have to talk with Ma and Pa Kent or, heaven forbid, Lois. Pushing Clark into anything _won't_ help and anyway, he isn’t _that_ cruel.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not including anything about Bruce and Clark's conversation about Conner was bothering me. So I fixed it.


	9. Downtime

Kaldur'ahm regained consciousness not long after he lost it, waking to the sight of Batman reducing Clayface to a puddle of ooze on the ground. He startled as a small, Bat-shaped shadow appeared next to his head and ran gentle but firm hands over his head, checking for injuries. It must not have found any, because it then moved on to Artemis and the others. Superboy and Miss Martian were already stirring, but Kid, Robin, and Artemis remained motionless where they lay.

"Black Bat." Batman growled and the shadow, after completing its check of Robin, snapped a small vial of something strong-smelling underneath his nose. The youngest member of the team gasped and sat up, a hand on his head. Black Bat, as the shadow appeared to be named, patted his shoulder reassuringly.

Batman rounded the entire team up and followed them onto the Bioship, Black Bat fading into the Gotham shadows and disappearing.

***

Cass wedged her head in-between Jason's torso and the door frame. Jason, who was reckless but not stupid, moved back a bit to give her room. "How long?" His sister asked, sounding worried.

"How long has he been brooding in there?"

She nodded.

"Ever since they got back." He informed her. "Something happened that's got him mad."

"Not mad." Cass shook her head, frowning into the gym. "Hurt. Scared."

"Scared. _Golden Boy_ , scared? Of what?"

Cass shrugged, her forehead wrinkled up in concentration. "Don't know. Maybe..." she trailed off and Jason nudged her with his elbow.

"C'mon. You've got a guess at least."

Cass poked him in the ribs and sighed. "Dick is...different." She struggled a moment. "Damian is Bruce's son. You, me...adopted. Son. Daughter." She shrugged again. "Dick is Robin. Robin failed tonight."

Jason blinked at her, surprised. "Wait, what? In what world is Dickie-bird not the favored child?"

Cass looked confused, so he rephrased. "He's as much Bruce's kid as any of us. Doesn't he know that?"

"Is not official."

"It is not official." Jason corrected absently, wincing as Dick botched his landing and whirled on the wall, channeling all his frustrations into it.

"Whatever." Cass said, audibly exasperated, with attitude that she had to have picked up from Stephanie. They watched in silence as Dick dropped onto the bench and cracked open a water bottle. A quiet cough behind them made Jason jump and give Alfred a sheepish look as he shuffled off to the side.

"I might," Alfred said quietly, eyebrow raised dangerously. "Be mistaken, but I was under the impression that you were both supposed to be in your beds by now."

His expression discouraged any argument but Jason dared anyway. "Dick needs-"

Alfred's face softened. "I know, Master Jason. Why do you think I am here." He pointed back at the stairs. Cass tugged Jason away and he could hear Alfred open the door to the gym and clear his throat. "Master Bruce, wishes to see you."

When they reached the second floor Cass took a left instead of a right towards their rooms and Jason, confused, followed her into what they had dubbed "the family room."

"Not that I don't mind staying up, but what are we doing here?" He watched as she began pulling out beanbags and blankets and piling them next to the sofa.

"Bruce helping. Our turn next." She began shuffling through Dick's favorite movies and Jason rolled his eyes and headed to intercept Alfred. This called for popcorn.

***

 Dick was feeling a lot better after the one-on-one game followed by a quick shower in the gym's locker room. He came out, drying his hair, just in time to catch Bruce and they headed up the stairs together.

Damian was waiting for them at the top, his arms crossed and his customary pouty scowl (or maybe scowly pout) on his face. The Baby-Bat-Glared at the two of them before he grabbed one of their hands in each of his and dragged them off towards the family room.

Jason and Cass were already there, throwing popcorn at each other from forts they'd constructed out of the beanbag chairs, the menu of _Lilo and Stitch_ playing on the screen. Alfred came in with a tray of strawberry milkshakes as Damian climbed up onto the sofa and pulled Dick down beside him.

Cass pressed play and the Disney logo filled the wall as Bruce sat down on Damian's other side and the toddler nestled up against Dick's tender ribs. Cass and Jason settled in their beanbags and Jay pushed a bowl of popcorn, seasoned perfectly, up into Dick's lap, spilling some of it in the process.

Alfred sat in the armchair that was unofficially/officially _his_ and Dick smiled.

_It is little and it is broken. But it is mine._


	10. Bereft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After returning from Bialya, M'gann orders her thoughts. And those of her teammates, left behind in her psyche.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got _fun_. I think it is one of my favorite chapters thus far. And it somehow turned out being more about The Team than about the Bat Family.  
>  (It also got long. With the memories, it is 2,877 words, without it is 1,645.)  
> Happy New Year, folks!

It is a struggle, but she manages to hold it together through their briefing and until the others have departed the mountain, leaving her alone with Superboy and the newly named Sphere. Her mind a tumult of thoughts not her own, all clamoring for attention.

When she withdraws to her own room she can feel Superboy's concern and sends him a quiet wave of reassurance, privately reveling in their new psychic closeness. The bond the Team shares is strengthening, but is not yet even near to the closeness she is used to. The faint presence of Superboy in the back of her mind is a welcome addition that makes her, for the first time in her life, feel like she is truly not alone.

Still, she makes sure to mostly block him for the exercise she is about to engage in. It will be enough of a violation of her friends' privacy without including him. She is nowhere near her uncle's skill, he would be able to do this without viewing the memories she had inadvertently skimmed from their minds but she has already tried and failed to lay them to rest and their churning clamor is making concentration difficult. Even doing her best to only touch memories of the Team, and staying firmly within the past six months, that means she acquired a great deal of psychic debris that has to be cleaned up.

Once her door locks behind her, she moves to the corner to hover in the air, cross-legged and closes her eyes, dropping into the meditation state that she had mastered before she had ever learned to control her physical form. In the midst of the maze that is her own mind she finds the deep pool of her friends memories, smooth as glass in some places, reflecting images within, frothing and roiling in others, no clear pictures, only a wash of pain, fear, and uncertainty.

She opts to begin with the imprints of Kaldur's memories, as they float near to the surface, a little apart from the others, reflecting the manner she had obtained them.

There aren't many, his mind was well structured and she had not needed to repair broken glass so much as clear away crumbled edges. The skies of her mindscape darken and she shudders at the memory of Psimon's handiwork. His mental blasts had shown no care, only a cold, cruel, delicate efficiency that had left all their minds covered in a layer of shattered shards coated in a grimy layer of the echoes of his sadistic humor.

_"Just like that? We are a team on a mission?"_

_"Right now, my king. I am more focused on the matter at hand."_

_"Wally uses his understanding of science to control what he cannot comprehend. Acknowledging magic would relinquish the last vestige of that control."_

_"Have you ever wondered what would have happened if I had stayed behind and you had become Aqualad?"_

_"Noooo. Nothing odd going on here."_

_"I can hear you glaring!"_

_"I am considering rejoining you at the Conservatory."_

_"Superboy, you live. That gives you the right to follow your own path. A weapon or a person, the choice is yours."_

_"Such a waste. You really have no ambition beyond serving Aquaman? Aren't schools of others willing to die for their king?"_

_"To be honest, I'm not sure we_ have _a team."_

 _"We picked the right guy to lead. Automatically making_ you _the right guy to explain this mess to Batman!"_

_"Of late, I am not even convinced I belong on the surface world."_

_"Then I accept the burden. Until you are ready to lift it from my shoulders. You were born to lead this team. Maybe not now- but soon."_

_"Kaldur, I'm sorry. We wanted to tell you sooner. But Garth and I - we're together."_

_"Together on our own we forged something powerful, important."_

_"I am here. One hundred percent."_

She pulls out with a gasp and allows the rush of sensations and emotions to recede, shrinking in upon themselves and forming a fishbowl in which a small fish, glowing with a soft light swims.

Poor Aqualad. Even she had never guessed how much pain and doubt he struggled with, he keeps it so tightly controlled. Her soul aches for his losses, an easy friendship, a love that might have been. She makes a note to bake cookies especially for him and takes a deep breath before reaching for Superboy's memories, in a part of the pool that is shallow and turbulent and dark with light reflecting off of it like diamonds.

_"I live because of Cadmus! It is my home!"_

_"Subject Kr displays positive responses to both the aging procedure and knowledge implants."_

  _"Like Superman, you deserve a life of your own beyond that solar suit, beyond your pod, beyond Cadmus."_

_"Since when does the big blue boy scout have a brat?"_

_"Is this a super-hearing thing?"_

_"I like your t-shirt."_

_"So now we take out your trash?"_

_"Get on board, or get out of the way!"_

_"I am the Superboy, a Genomorph, a clone made from the DNA of the Superman, created to replace him should he perish, to destroy him should he turn from the light."_

_"Quit staring! You're creepin' me out!"_

_"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"_

_"We'll, a, we'll figure something out for you. The League will I mean. For now I better make sure they get the Blockbuster creature squared away."_

_"Give me your best shot."_

_"Huh. I don't seem to have heat vision, so I suppose helping is my only option."_

_"Wanna see me channel that anger!"_

_"I hate monkeys."_

_"Stay out of our way."_

_"Sorry Super...boy. Duty calls."_

_"No capes. No tights. No offense."_

_"I can read, write. I know the names of things."_

_"I...choose...freedom."_

Superboy is easier. Because of the link they are building and the unity they experienced in the battle with Psimon, she has already seen a great deal of this and it is swiftly wrapped up and placed in a box that shapes itself after his Cadmus pod. Feeling whimsical, she gives it Super-symbol wrapping paper and a red bow.

The remaining foreign memories churn around together, the center of the pool. Robin, Wally, and Artemis' memories, mixed together and intertwined because of the way she retrieved them. This will not be as simple. She will have to pick through the threads and untangle many of them before she can settle them away. While dealing with Aqualad and Superboy's memories had been like riding a gentle breeze, albeit emotionally wrought breezes, this will be like venturing into the thorn hedge from _Sleeping Beauty,_ if the thorns had a life and will of their own.

Cautiously, she dips a probe into the pool and extracts a single memory. It flickers with electricity and twitches a subtle sensation of flight, a joint moment for Kid Flash and Robin.

_A small room, computers. Tap-tap under her fingers, the crunch of a protein bar between her teeth. A two-fold sensation of combined competitiveness and easy partnership, knowing that the other has your back._

_"That takes some serious nerdage."_

The threads are sorted and she gently moves Robin's portion to one side and Kid Flash's to the other. Neither take a true shape yet, floating as small orbs of light, one a deep, soft warm red with wild, golden lightning crackling over the surface and the other marbled in shades of gentle gray, traces of red and green and blue and black swirling and flickering over the surface like a flock of birds against a stormy sky.

Another electric thought, tinged with a deep green focus with sharp edges and an overcast of deep-felt sorrow. Wally's retrospective pain and Artemis' present frustration.

_Leaving the awkward shelter of the elevator, stepping out into exposed openness, surrounded by constructs that can't be real can'tbereal._

_"Right._ You're _a Lord of Order."_

_**"** Oh, no. Not me. I'm just an old coot Fate used to put on. Until my wife Inza convinced me there was more to life. Ah, she was a real pistol, that Inza. Anywho, Klarion's after the helmet. If he gets his sticky little mitts on it, he'll turn the planet into his own personal playground of pandemonium."_

Hard on it's heels comes another, drenched in lightning-wrapped grief and guilt.

_Kent Nelson lying on the ground, kneeling beside him, desperate to do something but feeling so overwhelmingly helpless_

_"I have no idea what I need to do."_

_"Have faith in what you can't explain. Believe in what you can no longer deny."_

_Reaching, reaching, reaching, strangely warm metal beneath her fingertips._

_"Hey, dumb kid. You put that on, you may never get it off!"_

_Mind-numbing terror, determination, refusal to be ruled by fear. Not again. Never again._

Pulling out of this one is harder, the pain-strands cling to her self-projection like tendrils of a clinging plant, venomous and reluctant to release their hold. She drops a few deep green sparks to the side for Artemis and bundles the roiling cloud of Wally-memories into the others she has already put aside. They darken the orb, but the lightning still covers the outside, resilient and refusing to be dimmed, made stronger.

It is a perfect picture of how she has always seen Wally. A cover of wild light and exuberance over deeper, darker, calmer, things.

The third memory she selects is green shadows with black sparks and a tangled mess of emotions. Artemis only, no one else connected.

 _It's been years and she feels like she should be happy but all she can feel is loneliness and a deep-burning anger because_ you left us with _him_ and now you are back and just like that you want it to be better?

_A woman with short-cut black hair and a wheel-chair, love and cynicism and pain and hurt and loss and, deep below, not sure how to live but knowing that it does, a tiny glimmer of hope._

The memory turns Artemis' sparks into a orb, smaller than Wally's and about the same size as Robin's. Black masses like a dust-storm over a rich, forest green that makes M'gann think of the lush vegetation that covers the side of their mountain. Green and growing and everything that is good and whole about Earth, concealed behind a smog that doesn't quite manage to hide what is beneath.

This is something that M'gann loves, seeing these projections, evidence of the essence of her friends, their light and their darkness. Wally's kinetic energy, Robin's mystery and shadows, Artemis' cautious hope...

It's all so _honest_ and M'gann can't take for granted, not after having lacked this level of closeness for her entire life while surrounded by a culture that offered it freely to all others.

_“And just like that? We are a team on a mission?”_

_Determination, exhilaration, anticipation._

_“We didn’t come for a play date.”_

More lightning, more haunting cackles.

_Family and warmth and closeness._

_“Wally’s fast enough when he wants to be. We’re suddenly out of ice cream!”_

_“Wally!”_

_Sharp pang of nervousness, don’t want to be a disappointment. Please don’t be mad. Don’t forget me._

_“Ummm, Happy Birthday.”_

Another dark tone behind the lightning, but it grows brighter in response to both the shadow and the warm wrappings of belonging.

 _Darkness, tense, alert. Have to find him, have to leave here,_ everything _could be a trap._

Turn around.

_But up means out and out means away and away is safe._

Turn around.

_Clashing steel. A small child. Quick action. Enemy unconscious. Angry eyes._

_“I don’t need you to save me. You are unworthy.”_

_“Do you even know who I am, kid? And who are_ you _?”_

 _“You are Al Ta-er Saghir. My father’s false_ apprentice _,” A sneer on a face so small it is somehow adorable. “And I am Ibn al’Xuffasch, Warith al Ghul.”_

 _Shock, wonder, confusion, and_ Talia, B. Really?

_“And someday I shall kill you, and take my rightful place by my father’s side!”_

_Disbelief, amusement, pain and_ We really don’t have time for this right now. Did this kid swallow a thesaurus? Who am I kidding, he’s just mimicking what Talia’s told him.

_“Except you can’t.”_

_“What are you talking about, Hasana Raeae?”_

_“I saved your life. By the laws of the League, you owe me a life debt.”_

_Satisfaction at his dumbfounded look. Slight guild at feeling so smug at pulling one over on a toddler. The urge to get out of this dark place._

M’gann adds the new memory to Robin’s orb on auto-pilot, her mindscape feels numb around her, assimilating the new information on its own. The language the angry (afraid) child had spoken is unfamiliar to her, but she is able to pull the translations from the memory itself.

Little Bird. Son of the Bat. Heir of the Demon. Charity trash.

Batman has a son. It isn’t Robin.

She has always thought that Batman and Robin were father and son. They have bonds so strong that it seems unbelievable that they are _not._ Tangible, strong, bright bonds that are so _real._

That there is not a blood connection seems…impossible.

There are golden flecks of warm protectiveness and deep, focused love coloring Robin’s orb now. Love like M'gann felt from the mother in the supermarket, brushing the dirt from her child's knees and tears from his face. Love and a flowing stream of guilt and "How could I have forgotten them."

M'gann wrestles with her curiosity for a long moment before she turns back to the pool.

Sharp forest fletchings and red-breasted feathers.

 _Looking up, in the shadows, someone watching, protecting._ Sister? Roy?

_Looking down, awe, hope, excitement, fear. Looking to the side, dark shadows, small but dangerous._

_Run, run, over rooftops, home, safe, heart pounding, breath gasping._

Artemis' orb spikes a brighter green and Robin's shifts and settles.

Speed and static and soft feather-down like a cloud and sharp metal edges to throw.

_Laughter, the thrill of the chase._

_"So you changed too?"_

_Running, lightning in her blood and energy crackling within, seeking for release, restraint, an easy pace to match her best friend._

_"You kidding? Ugh! I feel naked in civvies. You still tracking the parts?"_

_Business, focus, checking data, frustration._

_"They were heading through Gotham, but they veered- Wait! Dude, they're at my school!"_

_Disbelief, concern._

Memories shared by Wally and Robin are harder to separate, the strands intertwining with an easy trust and familiarity, the lighting reaching into the shadows and pulling the wary little bird into its circle.

The orbs are beginning to take a cautious shape, Robin's growing longer, more cylindrical and Wally's seemingly unable to decide what form it wants to take.

One last memory should untangle the remnants enough to sort themselves.

_Eyes opening, he's standing over her, fear, scuttling back to the wall, bow in hand. Armed, can protect herself._

_"Hey it's okay. It's okay. I won't hurt you. I'm one of the good guys. You know, Kid Flash."_

_Soothing, she doesn't want to frighten the green girl any more. Pride in the symbol she wears and what it represents. Family, ability, worth._

_Closing down, wrap up tight._

_"Seen Kid Flash on the news. He doesn't wear black."_

_Confusion, sheepishness._

_"Uh, little unclear on that myself. What about you? Green Arrow fixation?"_

_Startled, fear, confusion, anger, fear-fear-fear_

_"WHO PUT ME IN THIS?"_

_Amusement, awkward,_ She's actually kinda hot _, embarrassment._

_"Wow. I am not touching that with a 10-foot - uh, so you know how to us that bow?"_

_Pride. Resignation._

_"Yeah, my dad taught me... DAD! He must've done this. Another of his stupid tests."_

_"What kind of test?"_

_Pain._ Tamp it down, don't feel it don't show it.

_"He probably wants me to kill you."_

As she tucks the protective speedforce and lonely arrows away the remainder of the pool wavers and slowly vanishes, absorbed into the individual projections.

Kid Flash's settle as a chemistry set like she sees on TV sometimes, each bubbling beaker and tube holding its own memory.

Artemis' take the form of a sleeping cat, striped in a way that no cat she has ever seen looks, a broad grin on its slumbering face, the teeth reminding her of the assassin Cheshire. The cat looks more like a kitten though and she tenderly tucks it into the corner of a mental shelf beside Kaldur's fishbowl.

Robin's orb has become a birdcage, full of brilliantly colored little birds, flitting from perch to perch. The darker memories have formed bats, hanging from the top of the cage, slumbering seemingly unaware of the activity below them. As M'gann forms a stand to hang the cage from, she notices that the door is open and every now and then, one of the little birds will fly down to perch in the opening and look out, before returning to the others. She reaches to close the door but some instinct stops her.

She stands back and looks at them all, these projections of her teammates and feels the overwhelming curiosity again. She strokes Artemis' kitten, wondering...

Just one peek...

A soft knock on the gate of her mindscape.

_M'gann? Are you alright? It's been hours."_

She pulls back and slowly returns herself to the physical world.

The memories will always be there for later if she needs them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that all Arabic is pulled together by me from (a really good) online lexicon/dictionary and is fashioned after the style used in the comics and CW's Arrow. Half the time it is also _my_ best shot at rendering it phonetically and thus is very much likely not to be completely correct. My personal headcannon is that the League of Shadow's official language is a dialect of Coptic Arabic, but I speak exactly none of the language so it is very piecemeal. Hey, it's comics. (Though if anyone has experience with either dialect of the language, whether a standard dialect or Coptic, and wants to help, I would be thrilled!)


	11. Targets

No one but Mr. Bruce notices when Timmy entered the room (except probably Cass because she notices everything) and he feels a flush of pride. Jason is curled up in a corner, making a face at a book that tells Timmy that it is most likely assigned summer reading for school. Jason doesn't read books he thinks are stupid unless Alfred makes him. Dick and Cass are taking up most of the room, going through a capoeira routine together on the rug. Damian is watching.

Dick hasn't let Damian out of his sight since he got back from Bialya. He feels guilty about forgetting him, even though it obviously wasn't his fault. (Dick is funny that way.)

"Timmers!" Jason surprises him and is able to pull him in for a noogie. Someday, Timmy will be able to escape but he can't yet so he has to wait until Jason lets go. He doesn't mind too much. It's nice. Jason doesn't care much about personal space with Timmy and his siblings. No one else is allowed in, just them. It makes Timmy feel special. "What'cha doin' here?"

"I came to visit." He glances around the room. Damian is glaring at him and has scooted closer to Dick. "Is that alright? Mr. Alfred said it was."

"Dude!" Jason grins down at him. "It's awesome. I was about to go to sleep watching the two inhuman wonders over here." He jerks a thumb at Dick and Cass, who don't look offended. Dick rolls his eyes and hugs Timmy. Dick gives good hugs, they make him feel warm and wanted.

Dick sits down beside Damian and Cass steals a hug before Timmy even realizes she's next to him. "Parents...home?" She frowns and he shrugs.

"No, they left this morning. For a dig in Egypt, I think."

Mr. Bruce and Dick exchange that look they always give when his parents leave again. It makes Timmy feel awkward.

"Alright." Jason says loudly, throwing his book into the chair he'd been sitting in. Definitely assigned reading. Jason never treated books like that unless he _hated_ them. Timmy remembers that he'd thrown _Our Only May Amelia_ out the window from Mr. Bruce's office at Wayne Enterprises. (Mr. Wayne's office is on the twenty-second floor.) "Let's go do something fun. Summer's almost over, we need to treasure what little we have left."

Cass grins and links her arm with Timmy's. "Pool?"

Mr. Bruce sighs, but Timmy _thinks_ he's trying to hide a smile as he clicks off the television in the middle of Cat Grant talking about the peace negotiations that will be happening tonight. "Remember sunscreen please. We don't want a repeat of last time."

Dick laughs at that and Timmy feels embarrassed. He'd still been sunburned when his parents got back and his dad had thought he was sick. It hurt too. Jason hooks his arm around Timmy's neck and begins dragging him towards the stairs. He trips a bit, not able to see anything other than the floor and his and Jason's shoes.

"C'mon, Timbo. I'm pretty sure you left your swimsuit here last time."

He did.

***

It is hours later when Mr. Alfred calls them in for dinner, shooing them all into different bathrooms to shower first. The clothes he sets out for Timmy are different from the ones he was wearing when he came to the manor earlier. (Mr. Alfred is magic like that. Timmy has a theory that he can teleport.)

He runs into Dick and Damian in the hallway, Dick is running a towel through Damian's hair, chattering to try and cheer the littlest boy up. (Damian is sulking because Mr. Alfred says he has to wear floaties in the pool. Damian says he's swum rivers and doesn't need stupid things like floaties. Dick says he's just trying to hide that he likes that they have cat faces on them. Timmy thinks Dick is crazy but he also thinks Damian is lying about the rivers.)

Cass appears from nowhere and pulls Timmy to the table. His seat is in-between her seat and Stephanie's, but Steph isn't here today so no one sits on Tim's other side.

Mr. Alfred makes really good dinners, even better than Mrs. Mac, and she makes the best dinners out of any of the housekeepers he's had. More evidence that Mr. Alfred is magic. They are having roast beef tonight, Mr. Alfred says because they worked up such an appetite in the pool and Timmy does feel really hungry. Even hungrier than after he trains with Mr. Bruce or Dick. (He convinced them to teach him self-defense after the last time he got kidnapped with Dick. Jason helped.)

"Are you ready for school to start, Tim?" Mr. Bruce asks him and Tim swallows him mouthful quickly.

"Yessir. I'm looking forward to third grade."

Mr. Bruce frowns and Timmy wonders what he said wrong.

"Third grade? You could easily qualify for fourth grade, at least. Likely fifth."

Timmy shrugs. He knows that Dick skipped a couple of grades and Jason is skipping one but he's already the smallest in his year and moving up to be with older kids would just make that worse. He figured out back in preschool how to keep himself occupied during class.

"I can speak with your parents-" Mr. Bruce starts saying and Timmy interrupts before he can stop himself.

"No!" He shrinks down in his seat under Mr. Bruce's gaze. Mr. Bruce is scary sometimes, its like he's Batman even when he isn't wearing the costume. "I mean, I don't mind. I have friends in my class."

That is true. Bernard is cool and doesn't mind when Timmy says weird things and Darla scares off Walter and Jemima when they try to pick on him. And Stephanie is in his grade. She's one of the oldest kids in the grade too, so she's automatically cool even if she's a scholarship kid. (Timmy doesn't see why that matters. People are weird.)

Mr. Bruce looks at him for a long moment before he nods. "Alright. If you're sure."

Timmy smiles back. "I'm sure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is interested, the "last time" when Tim got sunburned is patterned off the "Injury" fill from Chapter One of [ Words That Mean Something](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3299279/chapters/7204226).  
> Enjoy!


	12. Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The preparation for the undercover op at Belle Reve stirs up some old demons.  
> And Selina isn't their mother, she really isn't. But there's no one else.

                Selina was sipping tea and watching with amusement as Timmy completely, well, _smashed_ Stephanie and Cass at Mario Super Smash Bros. He might be the youngest and smallest of the terrible trio but damn if there weren’t days that she didn’t consider attempting to recruit him herself before Bruce got his fangs in all the way. The child was extraordinarily gifted and could even out-hack Dick when he got focused enough to forget he was going up against his idol.

                Now Dick…that was a crying shame. Such wasted potential. Under her tutelage, he would have become the greatest thief in the world. She had seen him run a heist before and it was a thing of beauty. Ah well, _c'est la vie_.

                And speak of the devil.

                The look on the boy’s face was enough to have Selina gently replacing her teacup on its saucer and mentally running over everything she knew about both the Day and Night lives of her…It’s Complicated’s family. Nothing came to mind that could cause that sort of anxiety.

                Dick slumped into the chair across from her with all the grace that came naturally to him but with a heaviness that had Jason, beside him, looking up from his book in curiosity.

                “What’s wrong, Bat-chick?” She asked.

                “Nothing.” Dick smiled brightly and visibly relaxed. “I’m good. How are you?”

                Selina exchanged glances with Jason and knew that he wasn’t buying it either. She reached across the table and gently rapped the older boy’s knuckles. “You can’t con a con woman, Chickie,” She chided.

                His smile grew brittle. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”

                Jason snorted and rolled his eyes. “Don’t give us your ‘the show must go on’ crap. Just answer the question.”

                Dick turned a truly impressive mini-Bat Glare on him and Selina cleared her throat, knowing from experience that if she let this escalate she would never get an answer and Bruce would be grumpier than usual for at least a week when he had to deal with his eldest two sons fighting. He was no fun to tease when he was in those sorts of moods. “Please, love.” She took his hand in hers this time. “Talk to me.”

                With one last dirty look at Jason, Dick shrugged, his eyes fixed on where she was gently running her thumb over the knuckles she’d abused earlier. “It really is nothing. Just a…Team thing.”

                She perked up at that. She had been begging Bruce for ages to let her play with this new team of Robin’s, just so she could meet them. He was unrelenting though, just as protective of them as he was his own children. They’d only ever come to Gotham twice, and both times they had been gone before she’d even heard about it.

                “More drama?” Jason stuck his nose back into his book, a battered, paperback copy of _The Tale of Desperaux_. “Seriously, this is reaching _telenovela_ levels of ridiculous.”

                “Not drama.” Dick said reluctantly, the slightest hint of his accent showing beneath his carefully constructed American speech patterns. “Mission.” He gave her a sideways look and Selina made sure the small smile she gave was genuine. You can’t con a conman.

                “I promised, love.” She wasn’t fool enough to think that the deal she made with Bruce meant she was told everything, but it did give the hatchlings the freedom to come to her with the woes they couldn’t take to Bruce or even Alfred. She hadn’t exactly learned enough to bring down the Justice League or anything, but she now knew enough that, if she wanted, she could probably put enough pieces together. So she very, very carefully stayed away from following certain trains of thought. (Especially the one that made Lois Lane’s Superman articles seem _extremely_ biased.)

                Jason was frowning at them now over the top of his book. “The Belle Reve mission? What about it?”

                _Belle Reve_? Selina blinked. This was likely to be juicy.

                Dick nodded, his misery showing plainly now. That was the nice thing about Dick. Once he decided to actually share the emotions that he kept locked behind an impenetrable mask that was the mirror of Bruce’s, he truly did let them show with honest abandon. No wonder Bruce had come to her in a (determinedly concealed) panic over him a time or two. If ever there were two opposites…

                “It’s stupid, I know. I mean, it’s dangerous but not really any more than some of our other missions, less in some ways, we’ll be right outside for backup and everything but still…” he trailed off and shrugged helplessly, his fingers tightening around hers enough that she had to conceal the discomfort from his aerialist grip. “I know it isn’t the same but I still don’t _like_ _it._ ”

                Selina still felt confused but Jason had a look of dawning comprehension and the Trio had paused their game to listen and Timmy and Cass had similar expressions.

                “It’s not like the JDC, Dickie.” Jason said, his rough tone not hiding his concern at all. He wouldn’t have meant it to. In so many ways, irony of ironies, street-hardened Jason was the most honest of the brood. Catherine Todd, for all her faults, must have been a remarkable woman to raise a child so unafraid to love in the depths of Crime Alley. “They aren’t being sent in for real.”

                “They kinda are.” Dick said miserably. “No one inside is going to know, not even Warden Waller. It’s the only way to be sure.”

                “It’s Belle Reve though.” Jason insisted, as Cass slipped up to press against Dick’s other side. “Like you said, Warden Waller. It’s run completely different from Stormford. There is no way anyone as regimented as Amanda Waller would tolerate _half_ of the shit they let those thugs get away with.”

                “My dad’s in Blackgate.” Stephanie spoke up, her usually bright voice subdued. “He said he was hoping he’d get sent to Belle Reve. It’s better there.”

                Jason waved a hand, the tight look he always wore when his past came up shining from his green eyes. “And the Falcone’s had _my_ dad shanked in Blackgate ‘cause he double-crossed ‘em.”

                Dick frowned and Selina winced. That might not have been the right thing to say at the moment. She was beginning to piece the puzzle together and didn’t like what she was seeing. She squeezed Dick’s hand to get his attention. “Take it from someone who practically grew up in Stormford and has extensively studied Belle Reve.” She said when he looked up at her. “There is no guarantee for perfect safety. Prison is prison.” She squeezed again. “But of the two, whichever of your friends are going in will be much better off in Belle Reve.”

                Dick nodded and Selina looked around the room and felt the familiar flare inside as she glanced from one child to another. She was no stranger to too-old eyes in too-young faces. Hell, she had been one of those children herself once, but unlike most like her, she had never been able to dull into apathy her anger at a world that delighted in breaking that which should be protected. She thought of Stephanie, speaking with her father through bullet resistant glass and low-quality phones. Of Timmy, all alone in a too-big house. Of Jason, fighting for survival on the same streets she herself grew up on. Of Cassandra, fleeing into the night, refusing to be the weapon her father intended her to be. She thought of Holly, looking at her suspiciously through the caked on makeup that just served to highlight how old she was not. And to these she added the Dick Grayson she had first met, wide-eyed and skittish, alone in a foreign country and society, stuttered English seeded with words that didn’t quite fit, and imagined him surrounded by children older and stronger than he, looking to take out their own pain and fear on anyone they could.

                Bruce might be the one with a crusade, but Selina held her own accounting in her heart. For now, she simply slid to the floor and tugged Dick down into her lap, cuddling him close as she felt him struggle not to cry into her silk blouse and the other children clung to them both, offering comfort.

                She had never wanted to be a mother. Never wanted to subject any more children to the cruelties of life. But sometimes she wondered.

                And whether or not she and Bruce ever became anything real, she knew she would never turn her back on the flock of battered and broken little birds he had collected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for Jason's external language and Selina's internal.
> 
> Next up: Homefront


	13. Homefront

Artemis spent her free period doing a little exploring. She'd started out in the outer courtyard that she was familiar with from her nighttime trip that had resulted in Batman and Green Arrow in her living room and went from there. She ducked into the gym to avoid a cluster of giggling girls and was somewhat peeved to note that, despite the short period of time since Amazo's rampage it had already been completely rebuilt, bigger and better than before.

Feeling a little bitter, she wandered until she found herself walking around the edge of another courtyard, this one primarily inhabited by what looked to be middle schoolers. She ducked behind a convenient bush in the corner to catch a moment and try and figure out where she was and how to get back to the high school.

"Well excuse you."

She startled and almost fell back out onto the grass. Green eyes glared at her from a small face that, despite its young age, had only a few traces of baby fat left. A common enough sight in The Alley, but out of place here. The boy's uniform was somehow crisp and clean, despite the fact that he was crouching behind a bush. He blew smoke in her face and Artemis nearly choked on the familiar stench of cigarettes before he dropped his still smoldering contraband and ground it into the mulch beneath his expensive leather shoe.

"This space is occupied." He smirked at her, tucking a half-full pack of cigarettes away into a hollow behind a loose brick in the wall. "And aren't you a little old to be over here?"

Artemis flushed and barely managed to keep from tugging her skirt hem down, which was fast becoming a nervous tic. "Got lost, genius. I'm new." She cringed internally at how out of place her speech sounded here, the sharp, quick, Gotham street inflections making her stand out no matter how well she cleaned up.

The boy had caught it too, if the slow grin spreading across his face was any indication. He leaned casually against the wall behind them, looking her up and down in a way that, on the streets, would have gotten him a bloody nose if he was lucky. Here in this terrifying new world that she found herself in it just made her feel as if she was the one looking up at him, not the other way 'round.

"Y'mus be Art'mis Crock."

She blinked. She was not expecting that at all. And his voice...she squinted at him suspiciously. No way he'd gone from talking in the same bland accent as any of the other rich kids here to the very thickest of street-brogues, far stronger than hers, in less than two words.

The grin grew wider and he winked at her, sticking his hands in his pockets. "You're new," he began, his speech settling in between the two extremes, though closer to the polished version than otherwise, "obviously not from society, and," he shrugged, somewhat apologetically, "You aren't white. Not all white anyway. There's only a handful of new Wayne Foundation kids here this year and the only Asian high school girl is Artemis Crock. Therefore, you are Artemis Crock."

"How do you know all that?" Artemis asked warily. The boy smiled sheepishly and held out his right hand.

"Jason Todd, nice to meet you." She shook his hand numbly, still confused. "Properly, I guess I'm Jason Todd-Wayne, but Cass and I tend to just go by our old last names." He wrinkled his nose, which made him look even younger and, honestly, adorable. "The hyphenation sounds kinda pretentious. All the teachers here use it and it gets old fast."

Wayne. As in, Wayne Foundation. Wayne Scholarship. _Bruce Freaking Wayne the richest man in Gotham._ She vaguely knew that Bruce Wayne had adopted a kid or two, or maybe more. She really hadn't paid very close attention to the tabloids. She might need to though, if she was going to this dumb school.

The bell buzzed, signaling the end of the hour and the boy, Jason, gathered up his expensive leather messenger bag and pointed back the way she had come. "Go down that hall until you get to the three-way. Then take a left and it'll get you back to the high school."

Before she could say anything he took off across the grass and she decided she should get back before she was late to her next class.

"Oh! And Crock!" She turned around. "It gets better. It really does."

And he disappeared down a corridor between buildings.

***

One of the requirements for her scholarship was that she be involved in at least one extra-curricular activity, so Artemis found herself staying after classes were over. Of her options, she had decided that the “Current Events and International Relations Club” looked the least painful, so she spent an hour sitting in the back of the room as a blonde, chalk-pale senior named Marie Kane explained “goals for the year” and introduced the contenders for the positions as club officers. Artemis took one of the ballots and scanned it as she headed towards the front doors. Other than Tiffany Fox, a senior she’d met at lunch and who had saved her from the awkwardness of trying to figure out where to sit, she didn’t know any of the names outside of recognizing some of the surnames from various news and tabloid events.

She hopped down the outside stairs and began walking. Her bus stop was a good few blocks away and from there it would take her about an hour to get home. If she was lucky, she'd be able to sit in the back of the bus and get some homework done. If she was extremely lucky, she wouldn't even have to pull her knife out of her bag.

"Hey, Crock!"

She startled and turned. Jason was running up behind her and skidded to a halt, not even breathing hard. "Want a lift?"

"What?"

He rolled his eyes at her and jerked a thumb back over his shoulder towards a limo where an old man in an honest-to-God chauffeur uniform was holding the door open for what seemed like a crowd of children. "You. Car. Ride home. Not get shived on bus for shoes."

"Uh...no. I'm good...thanks...I can just-"

He lost patience with her stammering, grabbed her wrist and began dragging her towards the limo. "Come on. Alfred doesn't like it when we dawdle."

 Before Artemis could pull herself together enough to say anything coherent he was pushing her past the chauffeur who merely greeted her with a serene "Good afternoon, Miss Crock" and into the limo. She found herself sliding onto a seat of slick leather across from the midget freshman who had snapped a selfie with her that morning. His carefully slicked back hair now looked as if someone had ruffled it and his uniform jacket was crumpled and tossed over the seat behind him, his tie and book bag piled haphazardly on the carpet by where his feet should have been, if he hadn't been sitting cross-legged.

His head was bent over a fancy WayneTech tablet, side by side with an older red-haired girl, the two of them debating something on the screen in low tones. Neither of them looked up. Next to the boy a toddler in a miniature uniform and perched in a Batman-themed booster seat as if it were a temporary indignity he would overcome scowled at Artemis. The other seats on Artemis' side were occupied by two little girls, one a familiar looking blonde and one Chinese, on either side of a tiny boy, also in a booster seat.

"Hey!" Jason said as he hopped in behind her, the old man closing the door. "This is Artemis. She'll ride with us now."

The youngest boy (four maybe five) frowned harder in a way that set Artemis' neck hairs on end.

"Hi!" The blonde girl chirped up at her with wide blue eyes. "I'm Stephanie. This is TimmynCass." The Chinese girl and little boy waved and nodded shyly. "The little one is Damian and then BabsnDick."

The red-head looked up and smiled. "Hi Artemis. It's nice to meet you." She looked about Artemis' age and had a general air of "good girl" that reminded Artemis of M'gann.

"Dick? Really?"

The kid finally deigned to acknowledge her and flashed a grin that had Artemis almost wanting to smile back. "Yup. Why?"

His grin turned cheeky and the red-head, Barbara, smacked his shoulder. "Be nice, Dick."

The littlest boy switched his glare to Barbara. Everyone ignored him.

There were a few awkward minutes of riding in semi-silence as the younger girls giggled to each other before they came to a stop outside a police precinct. Before Artemis had time to do more than instinctively panic Barbara had gathered up her own bag and hopped out with a "See you later guys. Thank you Mr. Alfred!" and dashed up the front steps into the station. Jason hopped over so he was sitting across from Artemis and hurriedly buckled himself back up before the limo pulled back out into traffic.

"So, Artemis." He smirked at her and Artemis was reminded of another green-eyed freckled face she dearly wanted to punch in. "What do you like to do for fun?"

"What?"

"I mean," Jason said, practically oozing mischievous innocence as he blinked at her. "Dickie here is a math dweeb, Timmy takes pictures, Cassie does ballet. What do you do?"

"Uh..." Artemis tried to keep her sudden panic from showing.

Cass/Cassie leaned over and threw a pencil that hit Jason right between the eyes and he gave her a wounded look. "Be nice." She said firmly.

Jason pouted but heaved a dramatic sigh. "I apologize, Miss Crock, for prying into your affairs," he droned.

There were several more minutes of painful silence that Artemis spent staring out of the window before she felt a slight tug on the ends of her hair.

Stephanie shyly pulled her hand back from Artemis' ponytail. "I like your hair." She said. "It's so pretty." She shook her own blonde bob self-consciously. "I wish mine was that long."

"No you don't." Artemis said, almost automatically. "It's really hard to take care of. It's kinda wild." She cautiously touched a few silken strands. "But your hair might actually behave, even if it was really long, it's so soft."

Stephanie was practically petting her ponytail now, her forehead furrowing in concentration as she finger-combed the ends.

"Oh look!" Jason said, tinged with the slight panic that Artemis had heard in the voices of every male ever caught in _girl talk_. "It's your stop!"

Artemis practically bolted out of limo and was surprised when Stephanie followed her, latching onto her hand and tugging her in the direction of the apartment.

"Thanks!" she yelled over her shoulder and kept pulling Artemis down the sidewalk.

"You? Wait? What?" Artemis was starting to sound like a broken record.

Stephanie stopped pulling but didn't let go of her hand, looking up at her through lashes so blonde they were barely visible. "You live in the apartment above mine. My mom and I moved in last year after my Dad lost his job."

"Your Dad-"

"Cluemaster." Stephanie said quietly, her grasp on Artemis' hand tightening even as she looked away to stare at the cracked pavement beneath their feet. "He's in Blackgate now. It's just my Mom and me. That's how I got the scholarship. Dad and the Riddler don't get along so good and Batman sent Black Bat to check on my Mom and me when he broke out of Arkham once. They got my Mom a job at one of the Wayne clinics, she's a nurse, and I go to the Academy now."

"Oh." Artemis said, not knowing what else she  _could_ say. 

Stephanie shrugged and started swinging their hands. "Can I stay with you for a few hours. Mom doesn't get home until eight and it's lonely." She looks back up at Artemis. "Can I braid your hair?"

***

Jason nearly trips over Ace as he bursts into the Cave to be greeted by Leslie's pinched, angry expression that he associates with occasions like his first checkup after Bruce took him in, or the time Dick had been kidnapped from a Wayne Enterprises event and beaten half to death. 

"You are most certainly  _not_ fine." She says sharply, placing an oxygen mask over Dick's face. "You were  _drowned_ and then  _suffocated_." She snaps her gloves off and points imperiously at Dick, who is lying on the reclining hospital bed in the Cave's med bay, Damian curled up by his side. Behind the oxygen mask, Dick's blue eyes are sparking with a dazed anger. He jabs his thumb into his faded Haly' Circus t-shirt, other fingers spread. 

Jason rolls his eyes and pulling Tim, hops up next to Cass, who is perched on one of the cots, watching from around Alfred as he helps Leslie. Ace slinks after him and settles on the floor under their feet. Bruce is nowhere to be seen.

"What happened?" Timmy asks in a small voice and Dick is off in a flurry of slurred Sign that Jason, who is competent if not nearly as fluent as Dick and Cass, can understand barely any of.

"Maybe try that again after you've been oxygenated, Dickie." He chuckled.

Dick's muddled expression darkened into fury and he makes to rip the oxygen mask off only to be stopped by  _Damian_ of all people, who shoved a chubby fist over Dick's face with one of his Baby-Bat-glares. 

Dick looks betrayed and Leslie smirks triumphantly.  _Oh, she is sneaky._  

Alfred clears his throat. "It appears that Red Tornado turned upon the Team, assisted by two other androids of similar origin who attacked them in Mt. Justice."

Timmy looks conflicted and Jason feels Cassandra tense beside him.

"Is everyone okay?" He asks past his suddenly dry throat, his mind racing through the implications. Tornado was a member of the JSA and an integral, though not founding member of the JLA. There is very little he has not had access to.

"All of the children are well," Alfred reports, "if not a bit shaken. I believe they all went home to their mentors and families."

"What about Superboy?" Timmy asks.

" _Flash_." Dick signs, slightly more intelligible now. He still looks exhausted but the oxygen is obviously helping. " _Black Canary take-home after debrief finished."_

Alfred frowns. "Is that wise? I do not doubt that Ms. Lance cares for young Superboy but I am sure she is quite shaken as well. She has known Red Tornado since she was only a child herself."

Leslie scowls as she begins packing up. "Honestly, I'm concerned about the psychological effect this will have on you and your team." she tells Dick. Leslie is awesome like that, she doesn't talk over you like you are an idiot. "Being attacked in your own base will wreak havoc on your mental security." she sniffs. "Why on earth would they put you in the mountain in the first place. It has been compromised for years." her final muttered comment is ignored by Dick, who struggles to sit fully upright, the emotion in his eyes burning through the fogginess.

" _Not scared."_ He signs, the movements sharp and short, jolting Damian as he watches, uncomprehending and irritated because of it. " _Angry_."

And he is, Jason can tell. Despite his shakiness and general air of totally-out-of-it-and-about-to-fall-over he is also tense and ready.

Jason shivers. There is something frightening about Dick when he gets like this. When the smiles and warmth are replaced with a far too Bruce-like laser focus behind a cold, emotionless front. It is _wrong_. The way a speedster not being hungry, or Alfred burning cookies is wrong.

Leslie purses her lips but says nothing. She doesn't have to. Jason's been the target of the "using anger to cover other emotions" talk many times before. He wishes desperately for a cigarette but doesn't dare try and slip out now.

He has a right to be angry. There is a lot to be angry about in the world.

Leslie nudges Dick to lie back down properly and Damian hesitates before gingerly scooting back beside the older boy's hip, watching Dick with wide eyes.

He's never seen this side of "His Gwayson" before, Jason realizes. For so many months now Dick has been an anomaly in his world, completely different from anything he experienced before with the Shadows. Seeing Dick like this has broken a part of that. Dick seems to realize it too thorough the haze and the tension disappears as if it had never existed and he droops back against the pillows and sluggishly rests a hand on the sheets, not quite touching Damian's hair, as the other reaches up to pull the mask from his face.

"Hey, Lil' D. I'm alright."

Beside Jason, Timmy winces at the rasp of Dick's voice. Damian looks up at Dick, wrinkles on his little baby forehead, his steel-blue eyes frowning in concentration as he assesses. Whatever he sees in Dick's face reassures him enough that he relaxes and honest-to-God _snuggles_ in closer. Cass slips off the cot and tugs Jason and Timmy after her until they are all huddled up in one pile on the bed, carefully not disturbing the oxygen or any of the many wireless monitors currently attached to their eldest brother. Ace jumps and curls up on Dick's feet. Timmy fidgets some where he is sandwiched in between Jason and Dick and Cass reaches across Damian and Dick from the other side of the bed.

"Shush. Still now. Cuddle time. Family." Jason groans internally. He is outnumbered by the cuddlers.

Timmy does still, probably as much in awe at being included in the family as in compliance with Cass' command.

He exchanges glances with his sister over the bodies of their brothers before Dick gets their attention with a grin beneath the restored oxygen mask, the combined effects of oxygen deprivation, relaxation brought on by cuddles, and the sedative that Alfred or Leslie had to have slipped him at some point before they had stepped out had him growing steadily more droopy. The angry spark in his eyes has melted away into something a lot less focused.

Dick-face waves at Cass and his loopy grin widenes.

" _Cuddles same-as family._ " He signs sloppily at Jason. " _I win._ "

Jason's reply is not in ASL but the gesture makes his feelings very clear nonetheless.


	14. Alpha Male

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back! Sorry about the wait, basically my summer job prevented me from really working on this story. It should be back on a fairly regular update schedule for the rest of the fall though.  
> And Bat-Kitty does not belong to me. The creator of that particular stuffed animal is Glimare, who has written some fantastic stuff, including her Daddy, not Bats collection which, in addition to being the source of Bat-Kitty, was one of the things that prompted me to turn this from a one-shot into an actual story. I sincerely recommend her to anyone who likes the Bat-Family and/or Young Justice and Teen Titans.

Damian wakes up when Drake kicks him in the face. His retaliation knocks the weakling from the bed with a squeak which, in turn, wakes Todd, who scrambles from the end of the bed to the edge. "Timmy, you okay?"

Drake mumbles something, Damian doesn't bother listening, too focused on the empty spot in the bed next to hm where Grayson had been the night before and should be right now.

Todd pulls Drake out of the room, saying something about getting ready for school, and Damian reaches for the tiny bit of gray showing from under the pillow.

Zitka smells like Grayson and Damian burrows under the sheets, Zitka and Bat-Kitty clutched tightly to his chest, trying to forget the rattling of Grayson's breathing, until Pennyworth comes to fetch him for breakfast. Damian refuses to allow Pennyworth to dress him in his Academy uniform. Maybe if he makes enough noise, Grayson will come see what is wrong. Instead, Pennyworth just nods and hands Damian day clothes instead. The hoodie is one of Grayson's old ones and hangs down past Damian's knees, almost to his ankles.

Damian pushes Bat-Kitty into the pocket, flips the hood up, and allows Pennyworth to carry him downstairs.

Grayson isn't in the kitchen either. Cain is there, her pigtails tied with black and yellow ribbons. Todd has his hideous, filthy old red hoodie on over his uniform and Drake is curled on his chair like the pathetic weakling he is, pretending to eat his oatmeal.

"Where is Grayson?" Damian demands. Pennyworth sits him in the Robin booster seat he is forced to utilize and sets a bowl of oatmeal in front of him. The butler continues to fuss over them, refilling Cain's glass with orange juice and fetching Damian's Batman cup. (The sippy lid is a temporary indignity.)

"Master Dick and Master Bruce left for Mt. Justice some time ago." He announces. "I have already notified the school that Master Dick has taken ill and will not be attending class today. Under the circumstances I believe Master Damian shall remain with me under the same excuse."

Todd argues of course, but arguing with Pennyworth is futile, even for Father and so Damian watches from the car as the other three disappear into the Academy, no doubt in a hurry to find Brown and Gordon. Babies.

"I have an errand to run, Master Damian." Pennyworth says as they pull back onto the road. "But it should not take long."

***

Damian crinkles his nose as they enter the clinic. If Pennyworth must speak to Dr. Thompson could she not come to _them_ rather than Damian be forced to descend into this filth. He sneers at a nun in the waiting room who is surrounded by a pile of mewling brats with teary faces and snotty noses. One of the children notices Damian and dares to smile and wave at him, his freckled face crinkling up.

 Damian sniffs and moves on, clutching Bat-Kitty close to prevent theft. Grayson may see fit to adopt every red-headed waif (Damian isn't sure what a waif is but his mother had always said it in a way that makes him think it means brats like Drake) he comes across but Damian is the Son of Batman. He has _standards_.

Pennyworth leads him through into Thompson's office where he spends several minutes speaking with the woman in low tones. Damian can tell they are speaking of Grayson and his injuries, but no details. His training with the League of Shadows focused more on destroying people than healing them. Perhaps this needs to be rectified. He will mention the idea to Grayson and see what happens. Grayson likes it when he has ideas and asks questions. He doesn't turn him in to Father to be punished.

The nurse at the front desk, Brown's mother, gives Damian a sticker of some stupid star with sunglasses on their way out and says she hopes he feels better soon.

Damian only accepts the sticker because Grayson says that things like that help them blend in and seem normal which for some reason is important to Father.

***

The rest of the day is boring. Pennyworth is busy about the manor and insists on keeping Damian with him, which means that Damian is not able to train or do anything else useful.

Even after they have picked Father's stray children up from Gotham Academy, including Brown, and come back to the manor Damian sits idly and watches Todd assist Cain with her homework, feeling like it has been a very long day. He is not tired. Being tired is for babies like Drake.

None of the others seem very concerned about Grayson, even though he is injured. It makes Damian angry.

He feels some satisfaction when he is not the only one who refuses to go to bed before Father and Grayson return. Even if it is annoying to agree with Drake.

Pennyworth sets them up with a movie and hot chocolate in the Cave and leaves them be. Pennyworth is not a fool. He knows this is not a fight he would win. Damian sips his drink victoriously. He shall stay alert until Batman and Robin have come back. Not like Drake and Brown, who are already falling asleep on top of Cain and Todd.

***

Damian wakes up when Grayson lifts him and Bat-Kitty out of their nest of pillows and blankets. He decides to stay limp. Not because he _wants_ Grayson to cuddle him but it is fitting for the Son of Batman to not have to walk at all times. Especially after a hard day like today. He deserves it.

"C'mon Lil' D." Grayson says in his ear, his voice still that weird, wrong, raspy sound. "Let's get you to bed. I'll tell you about the mission tomorrow. You'll like it, there were a lot of animals and Superboy made friends with a wolf."

Damian frowns. Grayson went on a mission? While injured? Father did not usually let him into the field when he was hurt. Mother would have, but Father said that was stupid.

"Robin." Father's voice makes Grayson freeze and tense. Damian doesn't like it. It isn't as comfortable. "You questioned me in front of the Team."

"I'm sorry." Grayson whispers. His breath tickles Damian's ear. A shadow falls over them and Damian squints his eyes tightly shut. Father sounds much closer now.

"I understand this is hard for all of you. Don't let it happen again."

Father moves away and Damian can feel Grayson's heart pounding against his ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those interested, [ Chapter Nineteen](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3299279/chapters/17077483) of Words that Mean Something is a chapter entirely made up of ficlets in the Crowded Enough 'verse, including Dick and Barbara's first meeting and Artemis' impressions of Stephanie. Check it out and let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, I am officially announcing my intentions to continue this collection through _Invasion._


	15. Interlude The Third: Choices and Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Team was falling apart before their eyes and Batman had to make a call against his own better judgment and instincts as a father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I spent so much time trying to explain everything that went on in Alpha Male...that I decided I should just write another chapter for the episode. So here it is. Everything that Bruce did and why.
> 
> Also in celebration of the announcement of Young Justice Season Three!

It was supposed to be a surveillance mission! Not a milk run, like an emotional Robin had accused him of, but a mission that should not put them in direct danger as they recovered from Red Tornado's betrayal and the revelations that had followed. Batman had not been going to send them on a mission at all, then Superboy had overheard Kaldur'ahm telling him about Sportsmaster's tip about the possible mole.

In less than five minutes he had watched what had been well on its way to becoming a strong, well-built team disintegrate before his eyes, factions forming and alliances shifting as Aqualad lost control.

Even Robin, who should have understood, was swept up in the emotion to the point he had talked back in front of the Team.

It is Robin's job to question Batman, it always has been but Robin has always been sure to not be so blatantly... _petulant_ in public. It does not reflect well on Batman _or_ Robin and Batman cannot forget the earliest years, when the League had been watching them so carefully for the slightest misstep, any excuse to take Robin from him. (And it isn't just Dick anymore. He knows they wouldn't, the chances are less than 5% short of a psychotic break on his own part, but he will never be able to _know_ with absolute certainty that his children will not be taken away. He is glad, really.  His children need allies. Just in case.)

He had been short with Robin, yes, but of all people, he should know how serious their job is. Whining like a child is not acceptable. (He should be allowed to be a child, but he can't while he is Robin. Not like that.)

The Team needs _time_. Time to heal, time to think, time to process. But they needed a chance to mend their broken trust even more, so Batman had made a judgement call and sent them to India, hoping they might find evidence that Mayor Hill had been planing to meet with Thorne while there, as well as discover what had happened to land the Gotham politician in the hospital. Captain Marvel accompanying them had been risky, but likely to turn out for the better. The Wisdom of Solomon was powerful, even when its wielder was only ten.

The Venomed animals they had fought had left _Superboy_ with scrapes and bruises. It was worrying. Usually the only things capable of leaving marks on a Kryptonian involved either Kryptonite or magic. He will have to examine the files Robin had managed to salvage off of The Brain's computer systems after they had been wiped in the villain's escape. With any luck, enough information would be retrievable to understand what had happened to the animals.

According to the preliminary reports, in addition to Superboy's wounds (And new pet) Artemis had nearly drowned (again) when attacked by an oversized crocodile but she and Miss Martian had handled the situation admirably. Robin's breathing was labored, but not so much as to inhibit him from backing Aqualad up during the debrief. He was tense around Batman though, and likely would be until his insubordination had been properly addressed.

Batman frowned as he considered. He had noticed that Robin seemed more on edge lately. Alfred kept dropping hints about it. But he can't figure out what is wrong. A few hiccups aside, Robin's performance in the field has been excellent these past months, working with the Team has been good for him. He decides to watch more closely. Whatever is wrong, it needs to be fixed. He can feel a barrier developing between them and it is unsettling.

Once they have returned to the Batcave, Batman turns to Dick. His partner tenses, clutching a sleeping Damian more closely. Something in Batman's chest tightens painfully. He never wanted _his children_ to be afraid of him. For any reason. Best to handle this quickly.

"Robin." He says slowly. "You questioned me in front of the Team."

Dick nods, short and sharp but careful not to wake Damian. "I'm sorry." He whispers and there is something desperate in his tone that makes Batman feel a little sick.

He lays a hand on Dick's shoulder. "I understand that this is hard for you," he tries to soften his tone but it is so hard in the cowl. "Don't let it happen again."

He pushes the cowl back and squeezes Dick's shoulder until he looks up. Bruce smiles at him, willing his so- _ward_ (Dick Grayson already _has_ a father, that was understood from day one) to understand how proud of him he is. How well he and his Team handled themselves.

Dick's expression lightens and he grins up at Bruce, message received loud and clear. This is what makes Batman and Robin such a formidable duo, this ability to understand without words.

Dick takes Damian upstairs and Bruce heads for the showers. He has a meeting at W.E. tomorrow. Lucius will not be happy if he is late.


	16. Revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back. Maybe? We'll see. I had a serious writing and Life slump so...we'll see how this goes!  
> It's been almost a year and I'm so sorry. Hopefully it won't take so long for the next update.

“Story.” Cass demanded, placing her book of fairytales into Jason’s hands and curling up between Timmy and Damian, almost disappearing into the nest of blankets and pillows that had been constructed.

Dick had departed some hours earlier, for a sleepover at Mount Justice (Not that he’d called it a sleepover, it was a “training session”. But it was totally a sleepover.) While he was gone, the family room was hosting the most epic pillow and blanket fort of all time and Alfred had even been persuaded to relax bedtime in light of it not being a school night. Cass had stayed home from patrol, Timmy stayed over, and they made a night of it.

Alfred had set the movie limit to three and they had watched them while Cass painstakingly painted all their nails then sat imperially as Jason did hers. (Black with gold glitter.)

Board games had followed, a cutthroat round of Go Fish and then Jason taught Timmy and Cass how to play poker. Timmy proved to have a knack for card-counting (surprise, surprise) that might someday rival Jason’s own. Then Cass caught Jason cheating at ERS and declared game time over and went for her favorite book.

“Which story?” Jason asked, flipping through the well-worn pages with even more than his customary reverence for the written word, taking a moment to pause at the flyleaf with its two inscriptions.

“ _To Mary, may our child love stories as much as you do_.”

And, in Dick’s slapdash scrawl, made as neat as he could manage, “ _For Cass. Welcome to the family Little Sister_.”

Cass took a moment, munching loudly on a handful of popcorn while deliberately dropping stray kernels down the back of Timmy’s shirt as the smaller boy looked like he wasn’t sure if it was worth trying to wriggle away.

“Beauty and the Beast.” She said finally, with a satisfied nod. Damian, who’d fallen asleep hours ago, snuffled and curled up closer to Timmy, which was quite entertaining, considering his usual attitude toward him.

Jason understood what Dick meant about Damian being really adorable sometimes. (Though Dick _did_ have questionable opinions.)

“Beauty and the Beast it is.” He acquiesced, flipping to the requested story.

“With voices.” Cassie reminded sternly. 

“With voices.” Jason nods. Dick is Cass’ favorite storyteller. He is both very good at “voices” and, according to their sister, he tells stories with his whole body, not just his voice. (Jason has been press ganged into his impromptu theater productions enough times to have ample evidence of this.) But Jason is the best of them at _reading_ aloud.

“Once upon a time…”

* * *

 

Cass wakes Jason hours later and they watch, instantly awake and alert, as only assassins and street kids can be, on the news as large plants (Ivy, it has to be) wreak havoc not only in Gotham but in Paris, Star, Taipei, and Metropolis. Cass and Jason trad looks and dash for the Cave, a bleary-eyed Timmy and Dami on their heels.

They are cut off by Alfred, who shoos them back towards the family room. “The situation is well under control young Miss, young Sirs.  The Justice League is already preparing to deal with it.”

“Our city!” Cass protests. “Batman, Black Bat, Robin, Batgirl. Not Superman.”

Nevertheless, Alfred keeps them confined to the upstairs for most of the day. Cass repaints everyone’s nails, a scowl on her face that silences any objections as she attacks Jason’s toes with hot pink and colored glitter polish. Even Damian’s grumbles are silenced in the face of her frustration.

And then the “Injustice League” hijacks the broadcast, the Joker’s cackling face front and center.  And this time they refuse to be stopped. Alfred is already in the Cave itself, speaking with B through the coms and remotely piloting the Bat-Plan to Mount Justice.

Cass immediately makes for the case with her suit and Jason skids to a halt next to Alfred and scans the screens.

“They need help.” He all but shouts as casualty lists scroll by.

“The Justice League is on their way, Master Jason.” Alfred says shortly, in the way that means he is focusing on something else. “And might I remind you, Miss Cassandra, that you are not permitted out alone within a month of a concussive incident.”

Cass snarls silently, mutinous. “ _Gotham is ours. Not the JL’s._ ” she signs sharply. “ _Civilians will not listen to JL._ ”

“Nonetheless,” Alfred replies. “With Miss Gordon in Chicago and Miss Kyle who know where, there is no one to go with you.”

Cass’ scowl grows, then abruptly melts into a smirk. “Robin.”

Alfred frowns and glances at the monitor. “Master Richard and his team are on their way to confront the ‘Injustice League’ in Louisiana-”

“Not Dick-Robin,” She points. “Jason-Robin.”

Jason turns to look at what she is pointing at. It’s Dick’s old Robin suit, the one he’d worn before the…incident with Two Face and the baseball bat about a year ago. It had less armor than his current uniform, and considerably less pants. It was also just about Jason’s size.

“Only crowd control.” Cass adds before either Jason or Alfred can say anything. “No engaging. Not yet.”

Jason can’t help but feel a little offended, even though he knows logically that even after two months of intensified training he isn’t ready to tangle with anybody big yet. Street level criminals; muggers and looters perhaps, but definitely not mutated plant monsters affiliated with both Joker and Ivy. He frowns. Something about that seems a little off.

He puts it aside to think about later. “But I’m not Robin.” He protests weakly, not even sure why he is arguing against going at all, just because he hadn’t thought of an identity yet.

Cass shrugs, already pulling her suit together and heading for the locker rooms. “Tonight only. Jason-Robin, go!”

 

* * *

 

Less than ten minutes later, Black Bat and Robin are racing side by side towards Gotham City, civilians diving out of their way.

Jason mostly focuses on keeping control of “his” bike. Dick tends to modify his R-Cycles with an eye towards speed, to the point that his primary cycle can keep up with a slow-moving speedster. Even his back-up, which Jason is riding, is significantly more powerful than anything he’s ridden before.

Black Bat barely slows once they reach the city proper, flying through traffic and police checkpoints and across sidewalks until she veers sharply into the alleyway that houses the entrance to one of their bolt holes. (Bat holes, Dick called them, and laughed uproariously.)

They take to the rooftops until they are close enough to see the worst of the carnage.

The Bat-Plane flies overhead and dumps a load of the specialized Ivy-strength weed killer over the plant as Captain Marvel rips one of the plants bodily out of the ground and flies off into the atmosphere with it.

Jason gets distracted trying to shoo a reckless reporter and his camera crew out of the area and has barely enough warning to pull out a rebreather when the spores explode and the all-too-familiar laughing begins. His glove snags on some of the debris and rips before he finally succeeds in convincing the reporters that they would be safer elsewhere. How Dick never got himself killed wearing this flimsy thing he has no idea.

“Robin.” Alfred’s voice says in his ear. “You need to obtain a sample of the gas and take it to the secondary base for analysis. It does not seem to be responding to the traditional antidotes.”

Already, some of the first victims are beginning to go still. Whatever this new laughing gas is, it kills fast. Jason dares get close enough to take a sample from the air and bolts for the bolt hole (and he is never telling Dick about that inadvertent pun) as quickly as he can. After that, it’s just a matter of plugging the sample in for analysis and waiting.

Catwoman shows up and watches Black Bat’s back, leaving Jason free to sit and stare at the small screen compiling the results of the analysis.

Even after the plant thing seems to implode on itself, heralding the success of the Team and destroying the source, those affected by the laughing gas continue to expire. By the time Alfred and Leslie have an antidote synthesized, there are only a handful left to save.

 

* * *

 

They straggle back to the cave, one or two at a time. Jason comes in right behind Selina and Cass and all three of them are out of the showers by the time Bruce and Dick get back from Louisiana.

Dick is pale and muddy, with a torn cape and smelling of smoke and swamp. He hugs them all tightly and staggers into the showers. Jason flops into the big chair beside Cass, the two of them fitting their narrow frames easily into the space designed for Bruce. Damian, sleepy but determined, parks himself outside the shower to wait for Dick. Timmy is curled in one of the smaller chairs, frowning.

“What’s wrong, Kitten?” Selina taps him gently on the top of his head as she passes by.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” Timmy says quietly. It gets everyone’s attention immediately.

“Whadaya mean, Timbo?” Jason asks, leaning around Cass to see the monitor Timmy is staring at. It is the newly made file on the Injustice League.

“This,” Timmy waves at the muted video of the ransom demand. “forget the rest of them, why would Ivy and Joker work together, especially on this scale.” He looks earnestly over at Jason. “Ivy _hates_ Joker. And their demands? Ivy’s a bio-terrorist, Joker just wants chaos and destruction.” He counts off on his fingers. “Count Vertigo wants power in general, the throne of Vlatava in particular. Atomic Skull, Black Adam, Wotan…they all have different goals. I just can’t understand why they would decide to work together. And the prep for an attack on this scale would have taken _months_. The Joker has never had a partnership that long before. Unless you count Harley.”

“They were expecting us.” Dick volunteers as he emerges, pushing his damp hair out of his eyes. Damian latches onto his waist immediately. “And Joker spent the whole time going after me.” He shivers and Jason doesn’t think it’s the cold of the Cave. “I knew he hated Robin but I never realized how obsessed he was.”

“You’re right that it doesn’t make sense.” Selina says from beside Timmy’s chair. “I’ve heard enough of Pam’s rants about the Joker to know that it would take a lot of incentive for her to agree to work with him. She hated him even before Harley entered the picture.”

“What did they expect to get in payout?” Timmy nods. “Money? There are easier ways to get it that don’t involve calling the whole Justice League down on your head.”

“Trap?” Cass asks, frowning in confusion. “For who? Robin? Team?”

“We’re missing something.” Dick says, sounding muffled since he has his face buried in a now sleeping Damian’s hair. “And whatever it is, it’s big.”

Bruce appears and stands awkwardly to the side, since Jason and Cass are sprawled over his chair. “Whatever it is, the Injustice League has been stopped for now. And it’s bed time.”

Selina begins giggling and blows up a news clip on the big screen. It’s the tape underneath the gleeful looking reporter that catches Jason’s attention first. “IS ROBIN A GIRL?”

He is confused for a moment before he sees the picture in the corner, his exposed hand after he lost the glove.

Dick frowns at the screen. “What? Do they think only girls can paint their nails?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be an interlude with Jason and Dick talking about Robin. After that, Red Tornado is back and Zatanna debuts!


End file.
